STAR WARS
 YOUNG JEDI KNIGHTS - THE RISE OF THE SHADOW ACADEMY  #1: HEIRS OF
                                                         THE FORCE
                              Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
                                                                  
          Scan/OCR/Spellcheck - Demilich (demilich_2000@yahoo.com)
                                                                  
   1

   Jacen  Solo  had  stayed at Luke Skywalker's Jedi  academy  for
about  a  month before he managed to set up his room  the  way  he
wanted it.
   Within  an  ancient temple on the jungle moon of Yavin  4,  the
student  quarters were dank and dim, cold every night.  But  Jacen
and  his  twin  sister  Jaina had spent days scrubbing  the  moss-
covered  stone blocks of their adjoining rooms, adding  glowpanels
and portable corner-warmers.
   The son of Han Solo and Princess Leia stood now in the orangish
morning  light that spilled through the slit windows in the  thick
temple walls. Outside in the jungle, large birds shrieked as  they
fought for their insect breakfasts.
   As  he  did every morning before going to Uncle Luke's lessons,
Jacen  fed  and took stock of all the bizarre and exotic creatures
he  had  collected out in the unexplored jungles on  Yavin  4.  He
liked to gather new pets.
   The  far  wall  was  stacked with bins and  cages,  transparent
display cages and bubbling aquariums. Many of the containers  were
ingenious  contraptions  invented  by  his  mechanically  inclined
sister.  He  appreciated Jaina's inventions,  though  he  couldn't
understand  why  she was more interested in the  cages  themselves
than the creatures they contained.
   One  cage  rattled with two clamoring stintarils, tree-dwelling
rodents  with  protruding eyes and long  jaws  filled  with  sharp
teeth. Stintarils would swarm across the arboreal highways,  never
slowing down, eating anything that sat still long enough fqr  them
to take a bite. Jacen had had a fun time catching these two.
   In  a  damp,  transparent enclosure tiny  swimming  crabs  used
sticky  mud  to build complex nests with small towers and  curving
battlements.  In  a rounded water bowl pinkish mucous  salamanders
swam formlessly, diluted and without shape, until they crawled out
onto a perching shelf; then they hardened their outer membranes to
a  soft jellylike form with pseudopods and a mouth, allowing  them
to  hunt  among the insects in the weeds. In another  cage  strung
with  thick, tough wires, iridescent blue piranha-beetles  crawled
around  with  clacking jaws, constantly trying to chew  their  way
free.  Out  in  the  jungle a wild swarm of piranha-beetles  could
descend  with a thin deadly whine. When they set upon their  prey,
the  beetles could turn a large animal to gnawed bones in minutes.
Jacen  was  proud to have the only specimens in captivity  in  his
menagerie.
   Often  Jacen's  most difficult job was not keeping  the  exotic
pets  caged but figuring out what they ate. Sometimes they fed  on
fruit  or  flowers.  Sometimes they devoured  fresh  meat  chunks.
Sometimes the larger ones even broke free of their confinement and
ate the other specimens-much to Jacen's dismay.
   Unlike  Jacen  and Jaina's strict tutors at home on  the  city-
covered  planet  Coruscant, Luke Skywalker did  not  depend  on  a
rigorous  course  of studies. To be a Jedi, Uncle Luke  explained,
one  had  to understand many pieces of the whole tapestry  of  the
galaxy, not just a rigid pattern set by other people.
   So  Jacen  was allowed to spend much of his free time  tromping
through the dense underbrush, pushing jungle weeds and flowers out
of  the  way, collecting beautiful insects, scooping up  rare  and
unusual  fungi. He had always had a strange and deep affinity  for
living   creatures,  much  as  his  sister  had   a   talent   for
understanding  machinery and gadgets. He could  coax  the  animals
with  his special Force talent, getting them to come right  up  to
him, where he could study them at his leisure.
   Some  of  the  Jedi students-especially spoiled and troublesome
Raynar-were  not  pleased about the small zoo Jacen  kept  in  his
room. But Jacen studied the creatures, and took care of them,  and
learned much from the animals.
   From  a  small cistern Jaina had installed in the  wall,  Jacen
ladled  cool  water  into  trays  inside  the  cages.  His  motion
disturbed  a family of purple jumping spiders so that they  hopped
and bounced against the netting of the cage roof.
   He  ran his fingers along the thin wires and whispered to them.
"Calm down. It's all right." The spiders stopped their antics  and
settled down to drink through their long, hollow fangs.
   In  another cage, the whisper birds had fallen silent, possibly
hungry. Jacen would have to collect some fresh nectar funnels from
the vines growing in the stones of the crumbling temple across the
river.
   It  was almost time to go to morning lessons. Jacen tapped  the
sides  of the containers, saying good-bye to his pets. Just before
turning  to  leave,  though,  he hesitated.  He  peered  into  the
bottommost container, where the transparent crystal snake  usually
sat coiled in a bed of dry leaves.
   The crystal snake was nearly invisible, and Jacen could see  it
only  by  looking at the creature in a certain light. But now,  no
matter which way he looked, he saw no glitter of glassy scales, no
rainbowish  curve  of  light  that  bent  around  the  transparent
creature.  Alarmed, he leaned down and discovered that the  bottom
corner  of the cage had been bent upward . . . just enough  for  a
thin serpent to slither out.
   "I've  got a bad feeling about this," Jacen said, unconsciously
echoing the words his father so often used.
   The crystal snake was not particularly dangerous-at least Jacen
didn't  think so. He did know from firsthand experience  that  the
bite of the snake brought a moment of piercing pain, and then  the
victim fell into a deep sleep. Even though after an hour or so one
would wake up and feel no ill effects, this was the sort of hazard
someone  like Raynar might use to cause trouble and perhaps  force
Jacen to move his pets to an outside storage module.
   And now the crystal snake was loose.
   His  heart started racing with fear, but he remembered  to  use
one of his uncle Luke's Jedi relaxation techniques to keep himself
calm, to help him think more clearly. Jacen knew immediately  what
he  had  to do: he would have his sister Jaina help him  find  the
snake before anyone noticed it was gone.
   He  slipped out into the dim hall, his dark round eyes flicking
from  side to side to check for anyone who might notice him.  Then
he  ducked into the next rounded stone doorway and stood  blinking
in the shadows of his sister's room.
   One  entire  wall  of Jaina's quarters was filled  with  neatly
stacked  containers of spare parts, cyberfuses, electronic circuit
loops,  and tiny gears taken from dismantled and obsolete  droids.
She  had  removed unused power packs and control systems from  the
old  Rebel  war  room  deep in the inner chambers  of  the  temple
pyramid.
   The  ancient temple had once been headquarters for  the  secret
Rebel  base hidden in the jungles on this isolated moon,  long  be
fore  the  twins had been born. Their mother, Princess  Leia,  had
helped  the Rebels defend their base against the Empire's terrible
Death  Star;  their father, Han Solo, had been just a smuggler  at
the time, but he had rescued Luke Skywalker at the end.
   Now,  though,  most of the old equipment from the  empty  Rebel
base  lay  unused and forgotten by the Jedi trainees. Jaina  spent
her  free  time tinkering with it, putting the components together
in  new  ways.  Her room was crammed with so much large  equipment
that  Jacen barely had enough space to squeeze inside.  He  looked
around, but saw no sign of the escaped crystal snake.
   "Jaina?"  he said. "Jaina, I need your help!" He looked  around
the  dim  room, trying to find his sister. He smelled  the  sharp,
biting  odor  of scorched fuses, heard the clunk of a  heavy  tool
against metal.
   "Just  a  minute."  Jaina's voice echoed  hollowly  inside  the
barrel-shaped hulk of corroded machinery that took up half of  her
quarters.  He remembered when the two of them, with  the  help  of
their muscular female friend Tenel Ka, had somewhat clumsily  used
their  Force  powers to haul the heavy machine along  the  winding
corridors  so  Jaina could work on it in her  room  far  into  the
night.
   "Hurry!"  Jacen said, feeling the urgency grow. Jaina  squirmed
backward out of an opening in the intake pipe. Her dark brown hair
was  straight and simple, tied back with a string to keep it  away
from  her  narrow face. Smudges of grease made hash marks  on  her
left cheek.
   Though  her shoulder-length hair was as rich and thick  as  her
mother's, Jaina never wanted to take the time to twist and  tangle
it  into the lovely, convoluted hairstyles for which Princess Leia
had been so famous.
   Jacen  extended his hand to help her to her feet.  "My  crystal
snake's loose again! We have to find it. Have you seen it?"
   She  took  little notice of his words. "No, I've been  busy  in
here.  Almost  finished, though." She pointed down  at  the  grimy
pumping  machinery. "When this is all done well be able to install
it in the river next to the temple. The flowing water can turn the
wheels and charge all of our batteries." Her words picked up speed
as she began to talk. Once Jaina got started, she loved to explain
things.
   Jacen  tried  to  interrupt, but could find  no  pause  in  her
speech. "But, my snake-"
   "With  phased  output jacks we can divert power  to  the  Great
Temple,  provide  all  the  light we need.  With  special  protein
skimmers  added  on,  we could extract algae from  the  water  and
process  it  into food. We could even power all of  the  academy's
communication systems and-"
   Jacen  stopped her. "Jaina, why are you spending all your  time
doing  this?  Don't we have dozens of permanent power  cells  left
over from the old Rebel base?"
   She  sighed,  making him feel as if he had missed  some  deeply
important point. "I'm not building this because it's useful,"  she
said.  "I'm doing it to see if I can. Once I know I can do  it,  I
won't  have  to  waste time anymore wondering whether  anything  I
learn here is useful or not."
   Jacen  was  still not sure he understood. But then, his  sister
never  could grasp his fascination for living creatures.  "In  the
meantime,  Jaina, could you help me find my snake? It's  loose.  I
don't know where to look for it,"
   "All  right,"  Jaina  said, brushing her  dirty  hands  on  her
stained  work  overall. "If the snake escaped from your  room,  it
probably moved down the corridor."
   The  two of them stepped out into the long hall. Side by  side,
they scanned the shadows and listened.
   Jacen's room was the last chamber in one of the temple passages
leading to a cold, cracked stone wall. But none of the cracks  was
wide enough for the crystal snake to hide in.
   "Well have to check from room to room," Jaina said.
   Jacen  nodded. "If somethings wrong, we should be able to sense
it.  Maybe  I  can use the Force to track the snake,  wherever  it
might be hiding."
   They  heard the other Jedi students in their quarters dressing,
washing  up, or maybe just catching a few extra minutes of  sleep.
Jacen  cocked  his ears and listened, half-hoping to hear  someone
scream  out loud, because then he would know where the  snake  had
gone.
   They  slipped from room to room, pausing at closed doors. Jacen
touched  his fingers to the wood, but he caught no tingling  sensa
tion that might indicate his escaped pet.
   But when they came to Raynar's half-open door, they immediately
sensed  something out of the ordinary. Peering inside,  the  twins
spotted the boy sprawled on the polished stone tiles of the floor.
   Raynar  wore fine garments of purple, gold, and scarlet  cloth,
the  colors  of  his  noble family's house. Despite  Uncle  Luke's
gentle  suggestions,  Raynar rarely took off  his  fancy  costume,
never  allowed  himself to be seen in drab  but  comfortable  Jedi
training clothes.
   Raynar's bristly blond hair shone like flecks of gold  dust  in
the  morning  sunlight spilling into his room through  the  window
slits.  His  flushed cheeks sagged in and blew out  as  he  snored
softly in an awkward position on the cold tile floor.
   "Oh,  blaster  bolts!"  Jacen said. "I  think  we've  found  my
snake."
   Jaina  slid the door closed and stationed herself by the  crack
so the crystal snake couldn't get past her.
   Jaeen  knelt  beside Raynar's form and let his eyelids  flutter
closed.  He  stretched his fingers into the air, and his  knuckles
cracked.  He let his mind flow, imagining what a snake's  thoughts
might  be  like. As usual he felt many things at once through  the
Force, but he focused down, looking for his snake.
   He  sensed a slim, languid line of thought, an easily satisfied
mind  that  right now felt cozy and safe. Its only  thoughts  were
warm,  warm  .  .  . sleep, sleep . . . and quiet.  The  coiled-up
crystal  snake  dozed beneath Raynar in the folds  of  his  purple
under-robes.
   "Here,  Jaina,"  Jacen whispered. She left the door  to  crouch
beside  him. The fabric of her stained overall hissed like another
snake as she dropped to her knees.
   "I suppose it's directly under Raynar's body?"
   Jacen nodded. "Yes, where it's warmest."
   "That's a problem," Jaina said. "I could roll him over, and you
grab the snake."
   "No,  that would disturb it," Jacen said. "It might bite Raynar
again."
   Jaina frowned. "He'd sleep through a week's worth of classes."
   "Yeah," Jacen said, "but then at least Uncle Luke could  finish
a lecture without getting interrupted by Raynar's questions."
   Jaina giggled. "You've got a point there."
   Jacen  sensed  the coiled snake with his mind, saw  it  resting
peacefully;  but  just then, as if Raynar had heard  them  talking
about him, the boy snorted and stirred in his sleep.
   The  snake surged with alarm. Jacen quickly sent out a  calming
message, using Jedi relaxation techniques Luke had taught him.  He
sent  peaceful thoughts, quieting thoughts, that calmed  not  only
the serpent but Raynar as well.
   "Working together, we could use our Jedi powers to lift  Raynar
up,"   Jacen  suggested.  "Then  I'll  pull  the  snake  out  from
underneath him."
   "Well,  what  are we waiting for?" Jaina said, looking  at  her
brother with raised eyebrows.
   Closing  their eyes, the twins concentrated. They  touched  the
fringes  of Raynar's colorful robes with their fingertips as  they
imagined  how light he could be ... that he was merely  a  feather
wafting  into the air... that he weighed nothing at all, and  they
could make him drift upward. . . .
   Jacen held his breath, and the still-snoring Jedi student began
to rise from the tiled floor. Raynar's loose garments dangled like
curtains underneath him, freeing the sleepy snake.
   Suddenly  deprived of its warm hiding place, the crystal  snake
woke  up in anger, instinctively wanting to lash out. Jacen sensed
it uncoiling and seeking a living target, ready to strike.
   "Hold  Raynar!"  he shouted to Jaina as he flashed  forward  to
snatch  the slithering crystal snake. His fingers, wrapped  around
its  neck, grasping it behind the compact triangular head. He sent
focused  calming thoughts into the small reptilian brain, quelling
its anger, soothing it.
   Jacen's quick movement and release of the Force startled Jaina,
and  she  managed to hold Raynar up for only a second or  two.  As
Jacen worked to calm the serpent, Jaina's grip on the floating boy
weakened and finally broke.
   Raynar  tumbled to the hard stone floor in a pile of  arms  and
legs and garishly colored cloth. The thud of impact was enough  to
wake  him even from a snake-drugged sleep. He sat up with a grunt,
blinking his blue eyes and shaking his head.
   Jacen continued to calm the invisible snake hidden in his hand.
He  sent tingling thoughts into its mind until the serpent  fizzed
with  pleasure.  Content, it wrapped itself around Jacen's  wrist,
resting  its flat, transparent head on his clenched fist. Even  in
the best of light it barely shimmered. Its scales were like a thin
film of diamonds, its black eyes like two bits of charcoal.
   Groggy, Raynar looked at the dark-haired twins standing next to
him.  He  scratched  his head in confusion. "Jacen?  Jaina?  Well,
well, well, what are you-hey!" He sat up straighter and shook  his
left arm as if it had gone numb. Then he glared at Jacen.
   "I  thought  I saw one of your... your creatures in here,  just
for a minute. And that's the last thing I remember. Is one of your
pets loose?"
   Embarrassed, Jacen slid his snake-covered hand behind his back.
"No,"  he  said, "I can honestly say that all of my pets  are  com
pletely accounted for."
   Jaina  bent  down to help the other Jedi boy to his feet.  "You
must  have just fallen asleep, Raynar. You really should have gone
to  your  sleeping pallet if you were so tired." She  brushed  his
clothes  off.  "Now  look, you've got dust all  over  your  pretty
robes."
   Raynar  looked in alarm at the smudges of dust and dirt on  his
gaudy  garments. "Now I'll have to put on a whole  new  outfit.  I
can't  be  seen in public like this!" He brushed his fingers  over
the cloth in dismay.
   "We'll  let  you get changed then," Jacen said, backing  toward
the door. "See you at the lecture."
   Jacen  and Jaina ducked out of Raynar's room. Feeling  suddenly
bold enough to joke, Jacen waved good-bye with the hand that still
carried the invisible crystal snake.
   Together, the twins raced back to their quarters so they  could
put  on  their own robes in time to hear Luke teach  them  how  to
become Jedi Knights.
   
   2
   
   Jaina  ducked  back  into her quarters  to  change  into  fresh
clothes  as Jacen ran to stash the crystal snake in its cage.  She
splashed  cold  water  on her face from the  new  cistern  in  her
bedroom wall.
   Her  face  still damp and tingling, she stepped  out  into  the
corridor. "Hurry, or we'll be late," she said as Jacen ran to join
her.
   Together, the twins dashed to the turbolift, which took them to
the  upper  levels of the pyramid-shaped temple. They entered  the
echoing  space  of  the  grand audience chamber.  The  air  was  a
bustling hum of other Jedi candidates assembling in the huge  room
where Luke Skywalker spoke every day.
   Shafts  of  morning  light  glinted  off  the  polished   stone
surfaces.  The  light carried an orange cast  reflected  from  the
orange gas giant hanging in the sky-the planet Yavin, around which
the small jungle moon orbited.
   Dozens of other Jedi trainees of varying ages and species found
their  places  in the rows of stone seats spread  out  across  the
long, sloped floor. To Jaina, it looked as if someone had splashed
a giant stone down on the stage, sending parallel waves of benches
rippling toward the back of the chamber.
   A  mixture of languages and sounds came to Jaina's ears,  along
with  the rich open-air smell that came from the uncharted jungles
outside.  She  sniffed,  but  could  not  identify  the  different
perfumes from flowers in bloom-though Jacen probably knew them all
by  heart.  Right now, she smelled the musty body odors  of  alien
Jedi   candidates-   matted  fur,  sunbaked   scales,   sweet-sour
pheromones.
   Jacen  followed  her to a set of empty seats, past  two  stout,
pink-furred beasts that spoke to each other in growls. As she  sat
on the slick, cool seat, Jaina looked up at the squared-off temple
ceilings,  at  the  many different shapes and  colors  mounted  in
mosaics of alien patterns.
   "Every  time we come in here," she said, "I think of those  old
videoclips of the ceremony where Mother handed out medals to Uncle
Luke  and  Dad. She looked so pretty." She put a hand  up  to  her
straight, unstyled hair.
   "Yeah,  and  Dad  looked like such a ... such a pirate,"  Jacen
said.
   "Well, he was a smuggler in those days," Jaina answered.
   She  thought of the Rebel soldiers who had survived the  attack
on  the  first Death Star, those who had fought against the Empire
in  the  great  space battle to destroy the terrible super-weapon.
Now,  more than twenty years later, Luke Skywalker had turned  the
abandoned   base  into  a  training  center  for  Jedi   hopefuls,
rebuilding the Order of Jedi Knights.
   Luke  himself had begun training other Jedi back when the twins
were  barely two years old. Now he often left on his own  missions
and  spent  only part of his time at the academy, but it  remained
open under the direction of other Jedi Knights Luke had trained.
   Some  of the trainees had virtually no Force potential, content
to  be mere historians of Jedi lore. Others had great talent,  but
had  not  yet begun their full training. It was Luke's philosophy,
though,  that all potential Jedi could learn from each other.  The
strong  could  learn from the weak, the old could learn  from  the
young-and vice versa.
   Jacen and Jaina had come to Yavin 4, sent by their mother  Leia
to  be  trained for part of the year. Their younger brother Anakin
had  remained at home back on the capital world of Coruscant,  but
he would be coming to join them soon.
   Off  and  on during their childhood, Luke Skywalker had  helped
the children of Han Solo and Princess Leia to learn their powerful
talent.  Here  on  Yavin 4 they had nothing to do  but  study  and
practice  and  train and learn-and so far it had been  much  morel
interesting than the curriculum the stuffy educational droids  had
developed for them back on Coruscant.
   "Where's Tenel Ka?" Jaina scanned the crowd, but saw no sign of
their friend from the planet Dathomir.
   "She  should be here," Jacen said. "This morning I saw  her  go
out to do her exercises in the jungle."
   Tenel  Ka  was  a devoted Jedi who worked hard  to  attain  her
dreams.  She  had  little  interest in the  bookish  studies,  the
histories  and  the meditations; but she was an excellent  athlete
who preferred action to thinking. That was a valuable skill for  a
Jedi,  Luke Skywalker had told her-provided Tenel Ka knew when  it
was appropriate.
   Their   friend  was  impatient,  hard-driven,  and  practically
humorless.  The twins had taken it as a challenge to see  if  they
could make her laugh.
   "She'd  better hurry," Jacen said as the room began  to  quiet.
"Uncle Luke is going to start soon."
   Catching a movement out of the corner of her eye, Jaina  looked
up at one of the skylights high on a wall of the tall chamber. The
lean,  supple  silhouette of a young girl edged  onto  the  narrow
stone windowsill. "Ah, there she is!"
   "She  must have climbed the temple from the back," Jacen  said.
"She  was  always  talking about doing that, but I  never  thought
she'd try."
   "Plenty of vines over there," Jaina answered logically,  as  if
scaling  the enormous ancient monument was something Jedi students
did every day.
   As  they watched, Tenel Ka used a thin leather thong to tie her
long  rusty-gold hair behind her shoulders to keep it out  of  her
way.  Then  the  muscular girl flexed her  arms.  She  attached  a
silvery  grappling hook to the edge of the stone sill  and  reeled
out a thin fibercord from her utility belt.
   Tenel  Ka  lowered  herself like a spider  on  a  web,  walking
precariously down the long smooth surface of the inner wall.
   The  other  Jedi trainees watched her, some applauding,  others
just  recognizing the girl's skill. She could have used  her  Jedi
powers  to  speed  the descent, but Tenel Ka relied  on  her  body
whenever  possible and used the Force only as a last  resort.  She
thought  it  showed weakness to depend too heavily on her  special
powers.
   Tenel  Ka  made  an  easy  landing  on  the  stone  floor,  her
glistening, scaly boots clicking as she touched down.  She  flexed
her  arms  again  to  loosen her muscles, then  grasped  the  thin
fibercord.  With  a snap from the Force she popped  her  grappling
hook up and away from the stone above and neatly caught it in  her
hand as it fell.
   She reeled the fibercord into her belt and turned around with a
serious  expression on her face, then snapped the thong free  from
her  hair and shook her head to let the reddish tresses fall loose
around her shoulders.
   Tenel  Ka  dressed like other women from Dathomir, in  a  brief
athletic  outfit  made from scarlet and emerald  skins  of  native
reptiles. The flexible, lightly armored tunic and shorts left  her
arms  and  legs  bare. Despite her exposed skin,  Tenel  Ka  never
seemed  bothered  by scratches or insect bites,  though  she  made
numerous forays into the jungle.
   Jacen waved at her, grinning. She acknowledged him with a  nod,
made  her way over to where the twins were sitting, and slid  onto
the cool stone bench beside Jacen.
   "Greetings," Tenel Ka said gruffly.
   "Good  morning," Jaina said. She smiled at the Amazonian  young
woman, who looked back at her with large, cool gray eyes, but  did
not return her smile-not out of rudeness, but because it wasn't in
her nature. Tenel Ka rarely smiled.
   Jacen  nudged  her with his elbow and dropped his voice.  "I've
got  a new one for you, Tenel Ka. I think you'll like it. What  do
you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?"
   She looked perplexed. "I don't understand."
   "It's a joke!" Jacen said. "Come on, guess."
   "Ah, a joke," Tenel Ka said, nodding. "You expect me to laugh?"
   "You  won't be able to stop yourself, once you hear it,"  Jacen
said.  "Come on, what do you call the person who brings  a  rancor
its dinner?"
   "I  don't know," Tenel Ka said. Jaina would have bet a  hundred
credits that the girl wouldn't even venture a guess.
   "The appetizer!" Jacen chuckled.
   Jaina  groaned, but Tenel Ka's face remained serious.  "I  will
need  you to explain why that's funny . . . but I see the  lecture
is about to start. Tell me some other time."
   Jacen rolled his eyes.
   Just  as Luke Skywalker stepped out onto the speaking platform,
a  flustered Raynar emerged from the turbolift. Puffing  and  red-
faced, he bustled down the long promenade between seats, trying to
find  a  place where he could sit up front. Jaina noticed the  boy
now  wore an entirely different outfit that was as bright  as  the
one  before, and of colors that clashed just as much. He sat  down
and  gazed up at the Jedi Master, obviously wanting to impress the
teacher.
   Luke  Skywalker stood on the raised platform and looked out  at
his  mismatched  students. His bright eyes seemed  to  pierce  the
crowd.  Everyone fell silent, as if a warm blanket  had  fluttered
down over them.
   Luke  still had the boyish looks that Jaina recalled  from  the
history  tapes, but now he carried calm power in his lean form,  a
thunderstorm bottled up in a diamond-hard gentleness. Through many
trials Luke had somehow emerged bright and strong. He had survived
to form the cornerstone of the new Jedi Knights that would protect
the New Republic from the last vestiges of evil in the galaxy.
   "May  the  Force be with you," Luke said in a soft  voice  that
nevertheless carried the length of the grand audience chamber. The
words  in  the often-repeated phrase sent a tingle across  Jaina's
skin.  Beside her, Jacen flashed a smile. Tenel Ka sat up rigidly,
as if in homage.
   "As  I  have told you many times," Luke said, "I don't  believe
the  training of a true Jedi comes from listening to  lectures.  I
want  to teach you how to learn action, how to do things, not just
think  about them. 'There is no try,' as Yoda, one of my own  Jedi
Masters, taught me."
   From  the front row, in a flash of bright color, Raynar  raised
his hand, waggling his fingers in the air to get Luke's attention.
An audible groan rippled through the chamber; Jacen heaved a heavy
sigh, and Jaina waited, wondering what question Raynar would  come
up with this time.
   "Master  Skywalker," Raynar said, "I don't understand what  you
mean  by 'There is no try.' You must have tried and failed at some
time. No one can always succeed in what they want to do."
   Luke  looked  at  the boy with an expression  of  patience  and
understanding. Jaina never understood how her uncle could maintain
his   composure  through  Raynar's  frequent  interruptions.   She
supposed it must be the mark of a true Jedi Master.
   "I  didn't  say  that I never fail," Luke said. "No  Jedi  ever
becomes  perfect. Sometimes, though, what we succeed in  doing  is
not   exactly  what  we  intended  to  do.  Focus  on   what   you
accomplished, rather than on what you merely hoped to do. Or  what
you failed to do. Yes, recognize what you have lost- but look in a
different way to see what you have gained."
   Luke   folded  his  hands  together  and  walked  with  gliding
footsteps from one side of the speaking platform to the other. His
bright  eyes  never left Raynar's upraised face, but somehow  Luke
seemed  to look at all of the students, speaking to every  one  of
them.
   "Let me give you an example," he said. "A few years ago I had a
brilliant trainee named Brakiss. He was a talented student, a vora
cious  learner. He had a great potential for the Force. He  seemed
kind and helpful, fascinated by everything I had to teach. He  was
also a great actor."
   Luke  took a deep breath, facing an unpleasant memory from  his
past. "You see, once it became known that I had founded an academy
to  teach  Jedi Knights, it's not surprising that the remnants  of
the Empire would have their own students infiltrate my academy.  I
managed  to  catch their first few attempts. They were clumsy  and
untalented.
   "But  Brakiss was different. I knew he was an Imperial spy from
the  moment  he stepped off the shuttle and looked around  at  the
jungles on Yavin 4. I could sense it in him, a deep shadow  barely
hidden  by his mask of friendliness and enthusiasm. But in Brakiss
I  also  saw  a  real talent for the Force. Part of him  had  been
corrupted  long ago. He had a deep flaw surrounded by a  beautiful
exterior. "But rather than reject him outright, I decided to  keep
him  here, to show him other ways. To heal him. Because  if  there
could  be good even in the heart of my father, Darth Vader,  there
must  also  be  goodness in someone as fresh and new as  Brakiss."
Luke  gazed  up  at the ceiling, then returned his glance  to  the
audience.
   "He stayed here for many months, and I took special interest in
teaching  him, guiding him, nudging him toward the light  side  of
the  Force in every way. He seemed to be turning, softening . .  .
but Brakiss was colder and than even I had suspected.
   During  one  part of his training, I sent him on an illusionary
quest  that  would  seem real to him, a test that  made  him  face
himself.  Brakiss had to look inward - to see his very core  in  a
way that no one else could ever see.
   "I  had hoped the test would heal him, but instead Brakiss lost
that  battle. Perhaps he was simply not prepared to confront  what
he  saw  inside himself. It broke him somehow. He fled  from  this
jungle  moon, and I believe he went straight back to the Empire  -
taking with him everything that I had taught him of the Jedi Way."
   Many  students in the grand audience chamber gasped. Jaina  sat
up  and  looked at her twin brother in alarm. She had never  heard
this story before.
   Raynar  again  had  his hand up, but Luke looked  at  him  with
narrowed  eyes so full of power that the arrogant student flinched
and put his hand back down.
   "I know what you're thinking," Luke continued. "That I tried to
bring  Brakiss back to the light side, and that I failed. But-just
as  I told you a few moments ago-I was forced to look at how I had
succeeded.
   "I  did  show  Brakiss my compassion. I did let him  learn  the
secrets of the light side, uncorrupted by what he had already been
taught. And I did make him look at himself and realize how  broken
he  was.  Once  I accomplished that much, the task was  no  longer
mine.  The final choice belonged to Brakiss himself. And it  still
does."
   Now he raised his eyes and looked across the gathered Jedi.  As
Luke's gaze passed over them, Jaina felt an electric thrill, as if
an invisible hand had just brushed her.
   "To  become Jedi," Luke said, "you must face many choices. Some
may  be  simple  but troublesome, others may be terrible  ordeals.
Here  at  my Jedi academy I can give you tools to use when  facing
those  choices. But I cannot make the choices for  you.  You  must
succeed in your own way."
   Before Luke could continue, sudden screeching alarms rang  out,
sounding an emergency.
   Artoo-Detoo,  the little droid Luke kept near his side,  rushed
into  the  grand  audience  chamber, emitting  a  loud  series  of
unintelligible  electronic  whistles and  beeps.  Luke  seemed  to
understand them, though, and he leaped down from the stage.
   "Trouble out on the landing pad!" Luke said, sprinting for  the
turbolift.  He continued to speak to his students as he  ran,  his
robes flapping behind him. "Think about what I've told you and  go
practice your skills."
   The students milled about in confusion, not knowing what to do.
   Jacen,  Jaina,  and  Tenel Ka looked at each  other,  the  same
thought in each of their minds. "Let's go see what's going on!"
   
   3
   
   Jacen  saw  that  other Jedi students, who now  rushed  to  the
winding  internal staircases or crowded into the  turbolifts,  had
the same idea.
   Tenel  Ka, though, leaped to her feet and grabbed Jacen's  arm,
yanking  him  off the stone bench. "We can do it  faster  my  way.
Jaina, follow!"
   Tenel  Ka  raced  back to the stone wall below  the  skylights,
weaving  between two short lizardlike students who seemed  baffled
by the commotion and cheeped to each other in high-pitched voices.
Already  Tenel Ka had unreeled the lightweight fibercord from  her
belt and removed the sturdy grappling hook.
   "We'll  go  up  the  wall,  out the  skylights,  and  down  the
outside,"  she said, twirling the grappling hook in her hand.  The
muscles  in  her  arm rippled. At precisely the right  moment  she
released the hook.
   Jacen  and Jaina helped it with the Force, guiding the hook  so
that  it  seated  properly  in the moss-covered  sill.  Its  sharp
durasteel  points dug into a crack in the stone  blocks  and  held
there.
   Tenel  Ka grasped the fibercord in both hands, tugged backward,
and  began  to climb up the rope. She dug the toes of  her  scaled
boots  against  the  wall,  hauling herself  up,  somehow  finding
footing on the polished stone blocks.
   Jacen  grabbed  the rope next, holding it steady  as  Tenel  Ka
ascended  like a lizard up a sunbaked cliff face. As  he  climbed,
his  arms ached. He used the Force when he needed to, raising  his
body  up,  catching himself when his feet slipped. He  would  have
preferred to show off his physical prowess, especially with  Tenel
Ka watching.
   At last he pulled his wiry body to the top of the Great Temple,
squirming  out  the win-dowsill to stand on the  broad  rough-hewn
platform left by the ancient builders.
   Jacen reached behind him to grab his sisters arm and pulled her
up.  The  humid air of the jungle clung to the top of the pyramid,
making  it hot and sticky, unlike the cool mustiness of the temple
interior.
   Before  they  could catch their breath, Tenel Ka had  retrieved
the  fibercord  and was picking her way rapidly along  the  narrow
stone  walkway.  Pebbles crumbled under her feet, but  she  didn't
seem the least bit concerned about falling.
   "Around  to the side," she said, not even panting. "We can  get
down faster that way."
   Tenel  Ka  ran with light footsteps around the perimeter  until
she  stopped, looking down at the cleared landing field where  all
ships  arrived and departed. She stood stock still, like a warrior
confronted with an awesome opponent.
   Jacen and Jaina came up behind her and stared in amazement  and
horror at what they saw down in front of the temple.
   A  battered supply ship, the Lightning Rod, had landed  in  the
jungle  clearing. Their normal supply courier and message  runner-
long-haired old Peckhum-stood transfixed beside the open  jaws  of
his  cargo bay. His eyes were wide and white. He looked as  if  he
had screamed himself hoarse, and could now make no sound.
   He  stared at a huge, unnatural-looking monstrosity that loomed
out  of  the  jungle  as if ready to attack,  snarling  at  him...
waiting for Peckhum to make the next move.
   "What is that thing?" Jaina asked, looking to her brother as if
he would know.
   Jacen  squinted at the behemoth. As enormous as a shuttlecraft,
its  huge  squarish  body  was covered with  shaggy,  matted  hair
tangled  with  primordial mos's. It stood on six cylindrical  legs
that  were like the boles of ancient trees. Its massive triangular
head  sat  like a Star Destroyer on its shoulders, but instead  of
eyes  inset  in  its  skull,  it had a cluster  of  twelve  thick,
writhing  tentacles, each one glistening with a round,  unblinking
eye.  Curved  tusks sprouted from its mouth, long  and  sharp  and
wicked enough to tear a hole through a sandcrawler.
   "It's not like anything I've ever seen in my life," Jacen said.
   Tenel  Ka  glared  down at the monster with a grim  expression.
"Working  together,  we  can fight it," she  said.  "Follow!"  She
dashed down the wide-cut stone steps outside the tall temple.
   The  monster  let  out a bellow of challenge  so  loud  and  so
horrendous  that  it  seemed  to make  the  ancient  stone  blocks
tremble. The three young Jedi Knights hurried to the ground level,
careful not to slip and fall from the steep steps.
   "Help me!" Peckhum cried, his voice tinny with fright.
   At  the  jungle's  edge,  the hideous  monster  turned,  as  if
distracted  by something. Jacen felt his heart leap,  thinking  at
first  that perhaps the wild creature had seen the three  of  them
approaching.  But he saw that its attention was fixed  instead  on
another  figure walking alone, emerging from the lower  levels  of
the  temple pyramid, confidently gliding over the clipped  grasses
and weeds.
   Luke  Skywalker wore only his Jedi robe. Jacen expected to  see
him holding his light-saber, but both of Luke's hands were empty.
   Luke  stared at the creature, and the creature stared back with
a dozen eyes waving at the ends of tentacles covering its face.
   The  Jedi Master continued to walk forward, directly toward the
monster,  as if he were in some sort of trance. He took one  step,
then  another. The beast bristled, but held its ground,  bellowing
loudly  enough to make the trees swish. Jungle birds and creatures
fled from the horrifying sound.
   While the beast was momentarily distracted, old Peckhum dove to
the ground, scuttling on all fours through the open cargo doors of
his battered shuttle. Jacen was glad to see the supply runner safe
inside the shielded metal walls.
   The  monster roared upon losing its prey. But Luke spoke in  an
oddly  calm  and  clear voice that was not at all muffled  by  the
distance. "No, here! Look at me," he said.
   Tenel Ka reached the ground by leaping down the last four steps
and  landing in a crouch. Puffing and red-faced, Jacen  and  Jaina
dashed down beside her, then all three teens stood rigid, watching
Luke Skywalker face the jungle beast. They had no weapons of their
own.
   Suddenly,  unexpectedly, old Peckhum charged back  out  of  the
open  bay doors of the Lightning Rod, In his hands he held an old-
fashioned blaster rifle. "Ill get him, Master Skywalker! Just stay
there." He ducked down and aimed.
   But  Luke  turned to him and motioned with his hand.  "No,"  he
said.
   The  blaster rifle went flying out of Peckhum's grip.  The  old
supply  runner stared in astonishment as Luke continued to  stroll
toward the monster, seemingly without a care in the world.
   "This  creature means no harm," Luke said, his voice quiet  but
firm.  He never took his eyes off the beast. "It's just frightened
and confused. It doesn't know where it is, or why we are here." He
drew a deep breath. "There's no need for killing."
   Jacen's  stomach  knotted  with  unbearable  tension  as   Luke
approached the monster. The thing's long eyestalks waved  at  him,
and  its six tree-trunk legs took ponderous steps like an Imperial
walker.
   The beast lowered its triangular head, shaking it from side  to
side so that the pointed tusks seemed to scratch holes in the air.
It let out a strange, soft blat of puzzlement.
   Jacen  hissed with fear, and his sister's entire body clenched.
He  had  used  his  own talents with the Force  to  confront  many
strange  animals out in the jungle, but never anything as powerful
as this monster, never such a boiling mass of anger and confusion.
   But  Luke  stepped right up to the shaggy, angry thing,  within
touching distance. The Jedi Master looked incredibly small, yet un
afraid.
   Beside  the battered freighter, Peckhum fell to his knees.  The
discarded  blaster rifle was at hand, but he didn't dare  pick  up
the  weapon again. He looked from the monster to Luke, then to the
three  watching teens- then off into the jungle, as  if  terrified
that another one of the creatures might appear.
   Luke  stood in front of the nightmarish beast and took  a  deep
breath.  He didn't move. The monster held its ground and  snorted.
Its  eyestalks waved unblinking, pointing slitted pupils  down  at
him.
   Luke raised his hand, palm out.
   The  monster snuffled and waited, motionless, its wicked  tusks
less than a meter away from Luke Skywalker.
   The  jungle fell silent. The breeze died away. Jacen  held  his
breath.  Jaina gripped his hand. Tenel Ka narrowed her  cool  gray
eyes.
   The silence seemed so overwhelming that when Luke at last broke
the frozen moment, his whisper sounded as loud as a shout.
   "Go," Luke told the creature. "There is nothing you need here."
   The  monster reared up on its hind set of piston legs, its  eye
tentacles  thrashing in a frenzy. Then it let  out  another  high-
pitched  trumpet before it spun around and crashed  off  into  the
thick undergrowth. Branches cracked, trees bent to one side as  it
plowed a wide path back to the mysterious jungle depths from which
it had come.
   Like   a   snapped  string,  Luke's  shoulders   slumped   with
exhaustion.  He seemed barely able to keep himself from  trembling
as Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka rushed toward him, calling his name.
"Uncle Luke!"
   Luke turned and looked at the three friends with a smile.
   Old  Peckhum  stumbled  up, clutching  the  antiquated  blaster
rifle. His eyes glittered with unshed tears. "I can't believe  you
did  that, Master Skywalker!" he said. "I thought I was  dead  for
sure, but you faced that monster with no weapons at all."
   "I  had enough weapons," Luke said with calm conviction. "I had
the Force."
   "I  wish  I  could do that, Uncle Luke," Jacen said. "That  was
really something."
   "You  will be able to do anything you want, Jacen," Luke  said.
"You have the potential- as long as you have the discipline."
   Luke  gazed  off into the jungle, where they could  still  hear
trees  crashing  and shrubs snapping as the monster  continued  to
blunder its way through the forest.
   "There  are many mysterious things in the jungles," Luke  said,
then  he  smiled  at  the twins and Tenel  Ka.  He  nodded  toward
Peckhum's  ship, the Lightning Rod, which still sat  open,  filled
with crates and boxes of supplies and equipment.
   "I  think  our friend Mr. Peckhum is having a rough day,"  Luke
said.  "He's got a lot more to unload, and he's probably eager  to
get  back  up into orbit, where it's safe." He flashed a smile  at
the old supply runner, who nodded vigorously.
   "Why  don't  you three consider it a Jedi training exercise  to
help  him.  Besides,  we need to get ready because  tomorrow-"  He
looked  at  Jacen  and  Jaina, eyes sparkling.  "Your  father  and
Chewbacca are bringing us another Jedi trainee."
   "Dads coming here?" Jaina said with a yelp.
   "Hey,  why  didn't you tell us before?" Jacen added. His  heart
leaped  at  the thought of seeing his father again  after  a  full
month.
   "I wanted it to be a surprise. He's flying in on the Millennium
Falcon,  but  he had to stop at Chewbacca's planet first.  They've
already left Kashyyyk, and they're on their way here."
   Filled  with excitement, the young Jedi Knights eagerly  helped
unload  Peckhum's  supply ship. It was hard work,  demanding  more
concentration  and  control of their Jedi lifting  abilities  than
they  were used to, but they finished in less than an hour.  Jaina
and  Jacen chattered to Tenel Ka about all the adventures Han Solo
had experienced. Jaina groaned about how much work it would be  to
clean  up  their  quarters in time, so they  could  impress  their
father.
   Finally,  the  battered old freighter flew off into  the  misty
skies toward the orangish gas-giant planet of Yavin.
   Jacen smiled and looked wistfully at the trampled clearing. The
next  ship  to  arrive on the landing pad would be the  Millennium
Falcon!
   
   4
   
   "There," said Jaina, mentally relaxing her hold on a large mass
of  tangled wires and cables. It came "to rest in a more  or  less
contained jumble atop one of the newly tidied stacks of electronic
components  in  her room. "That should do it," she  added  with  a
satisfied nod.
   "Does  that  mean we can go to morning meal now?"  Jacen  said.
"You've been at this half the night."
   "I want Dad to be impressed." Jaina shrugged.
   Jacen laughed. "He never stacks his tools this neatly!"
   "Guess  I  did  get  a  little carried  away,"  Jaina  replied,
matching  his grin. "We've still got a few hours before  they  get
here."
   Jacen  snorted  and stood up from the floor,  where  he'd  been
sitting next to his sister while they worked. He brushed the  dust
off  his  jumpsuit  and ran long fingers through  his  dark  brown
curls. "Well, how do I look?"
   Jaina  raised  a critical eyebrow at him. "Like  someone  who's
been up all night."
   He  hurried  over to peer anxiously into the small mirror  that
Jaina  had  hung above her cistern. She realized that her  brother
was just as nervous and excited about seeing their father again as
she was.
   "It's  actually not too bad," she assured him. "I think  raking
the  twigs and leaves from your hair really helped. Here, put this
on."  She pulled a fresh jumpsuit from a chest by her bed. "You'll
look more presentable."
   When  Jacen went into the next room to change, Jaina  took  his
place  at the mirror. She wasn't vain, but, as with her room,  she
preferred to keep her personal appearance neat and clean.
   She  ran  a comb through her straight brown hair and stared  at
her  reflection. Then, with a quick peek over her shoulder  to  be
sure  her  brother wasn't looking, she pulled back  a  handful  of
strands and worked them into a braid. Jaina would never have  gone
to this much trouble for an ambassador or some silly dignitary-but
her  father was worth the effort. She hoped Jacen wouldn't  notice
or  comment  on it. Finished, she stepped through her doorway  and
poked  her  head  into Jacen's room. "All the  animals  fed?"  she
asked.
   "I  took  care  of  that hours ago," he said, emerging  in  his
clean,  fresh  robe. He heaved a long-suffering  sigh.  "At  least
someone's had their morning meal."
   Jaina  gnawed  her  lip, anxiously scanning  the  sky  for  any
glimmer  that  might herald the arrival of the Millennium  Falcon.
She  and Jacen stood at the edge of the wide clearing in front  of
the  Jedi academy, where the hideous monster had appeared the  day
before.  The  area's  short  grasses had  been  trampled  down  by
frequent takeoffs and landings.
   Jaina  smelled the rich green dampness of the early morning  in
the  jungle that surrounded the clearing. The foliage rustled  and
sighed  in  a light breeze that also carried the trills, twitters,
and  chirps that reminded her of the wide profusion of animal life
that inhabited the jungle moon.
   Beside  her,  Jacen shifted impatiently from one  foot  to  the
other, a frown of concentration etched across his forehead.  Jaina
sighed. Why did it seem like everything took forever when you were
looking  forward to it, and things that you didn't want to  happen
arrived too soon?
   As if sensing her tension, Jacen suddenly turned to her with  a
mischievous look in his eye. "Hey, Jaina-you know why TIE fighters
scream in space?"
   She  nodded. "Sure, their twin ion engines set up a shock front
from the exhaust-"
   "No!"  Jacen  waved his hand in dismissal. "Because  they  miss
their mothership!"
   As was expected of her, Jaina groaned, grateful for a chance to
get her mind off waiting, even if only for a moment.
   Then  a comforting hum built and resonated around them,  as  if
the  sound  of  their  mounting  excitement  had  suddenly  become
audible.  "Look," she said, pointing at a silver-white speck  that
had just appeared high above the treetops.
   The glimmer disappeared for a few moments and then, with a rush
of  exhaled  breath that she hadn't realized she'd  been  holding,
Jaina  saw  the Millennium Falcon swoop across the sky toward  the
clearing.
   The  familiar  blunt-nosed oval of their father's ship  hovered
tantalizingly  above  their heads for  a  moment  that  seemed  to
stretch to eternity. Then, with a burst of its repulsor-lifts,  it
settled  gently  onto the ground in front of  them.  The  Falcon's
cooling hull buzzed and ticked as the engines died down to  a  low
drone. The scent of ozone tickled Jaina's nostrils.
   Jaina  knew  the  shutdown procedures for the  Corellian  light
freighter, but she wished that just for today there was  some  way
to speed things up. When she thought she could wait no longer, the
landing ramp of the Falcon lowered with a whine-thump.
   And  then  their  father bounded down the ramp,  gathering  the
twins  into his arms, ruffling their hair, and trying to hug  both
of them at once, as he had done when they were small children.
   Han  Solo  stepped  back to take a good look at  his  children.
"Well!"  he  said  at last, with one of those lopsided  grins  for
which  he was so famous. "Except for your mother, I'd say this  is
the finest welcoming committee I've ever had."
   "Dad," Jacen said, rolling his eyes, "We are not a committee."
   As  her  father laughed, Jaina took a moment to study him,  and
was  relieved  to note that he had not changed in the  month  that
they  had  been  gone from home. He wore soft black  trousers  and
boots  that fitted him snugly, an open-necked white shirt,  and  a
dark  vest-a  comfortable, serviceable  set  of  clothes  that  he
sometimes  jokingly  referred to as  his  "working  uniform."  The
battered, familiar shape of the Millennium Falcon was unchanged as
well.
   "How do we look, Dad?" Jaina asked. "Any different?"
   "Well, now that you mention it..." he said, turning his gaze to
each  of  them  in turn. "Jacen, you've grown again-bet  you  even
caught  up  with your sister. And Jaina," he said  with  a  wicked
grin,  "if  I didn't think you'd throw a hydrospanner  at  me  for
saying so, I'd tell you that you're even prettier than you were  a
month ago."
   Jaina blushed and gave an unladylike snort to demonstrate  what
she thought of such compliments, but secretly she was pleased.
   A  loud,  echoing  roar  from inside the  ship  saved  her  the
embarrassment of having to come up with a response. A  large  form
thundered down the boarding ramp. Huge heavily furred arms reached
out to grab Jaina and threw her high into the air.
   "Chewie!" Jaina shrieked, laughing as the giant Wookiee  caught
her  again on the way down. "I'm not a little kid anymore!"  After
Chewbacca  had  repeated this greeting ritual  with  her  brother,
Jaina finally said what she and Jacen were thinking. "It's good to
see you, Dad, but what brings you to the Jedi academy?"
   "Yeah,"  Jacen added. "Mom didn't send you to check if  we  had
enough clean underwear, did she?"
   "Nah,  nothing  like that," their father assured  them  with  a
laugh.  "Actually, Chewie and I needed to come out this  direction
to help my old friend Lando Calrissian open up a new operation."
   Jaina  had always had a great fondness for Lando, her  father's
dark  and  dashing friend, but she also knew him  well  enough  to
realize that her adopted "uncle" Lando was always involved hi some
crackpot moneymaking scheme or another. She held up a hand to stop
her father.
   "Wait,  let  me guess. He's-he's starting a new casino  on  his
space  station and he needed you to bring him a shipload of sabacc
cards."
   "No,  no,  I've got it," Jacen said. "He's opening a  new  Nerf
ranch and he wants you to help him build a corral."
   At  this Chewbacca threw back his head and bleated with Wookiee
laughter.
   "Not  even close." Han Solo shook his head. "Corusca gem mining
deep  in  the atmosphere of the gas giant." He pointed up  to  the
great  orange  ball of the planet Yavin in the sky  overhead.  "He
asked us to come and help him set up the operation."
   "Oh,  blaster  bolts!" said Jacen, snapping his fingers.  "That
was going to be my next guess."
   Another  faint  Wookiee-sounding bellow came  from  inside  the
Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca turned and strode back up the ramp.
   "What was that?" Jaina asked.
   "Oh,  I  forgot to mention," Han said. "When Luke found out  we
had to come here anyway, he asked us to stop by Chewie's homeworld
of  Kashyyyk  and pick up a new Jedi candidate. He's going  to  be
your fellow student."
   As  Han  spoke,  Chewbacca thumped back down the ramp,  closely
followed by a smaller Wookiee, who was still taller than Jacen  or
Jaina. The younger Wookiee had thick swirls of ginger-colored fur,
with  a  remarkable swirling black streak as wide as Jaina's  hand
that ran from just above his left eye up over his head and down to
the  middle of his back. He wore only a belt woven of some  glossy
fiber that Jaina could not identify.
   "Kids, I'd like you to meet Chewie's nephew Lowbacca. Lowbacca,
my kids Jacen and Jaina."
   Lowbacca nodded his head and growled a Wookiee greeting. He was
thin  and lanky, even for a Wookiee, with gangly fur-covered  arms
and  legs. The young Wookiee fidgeted. Chewbacca barked a question
to Han and waved one massive arm in the direction of the temple.
   "Sure," Han said. "Go ahead-take him to Luke for now. The  kids
can get to know each other later."
   As  the  two Wookiees headed off to find Luke, Han said,  "Wait
here,  I have something for you," and ducked back into the Falcon.
He  returned  in  a  few moments, his arms laden  with  a  strange
assortment of packages and greenery.
   "First,"  he  said, tossing each of them a small message  disk,
"your mother recorded these personal holo letters for you. There's
another one from your little brother Anakin. He can't wait to come
here himself."
   Jaina  looked at the glittering message disks, anxious to  play
them.  But  she  slipped  them into one  of  the  pockets  of  her
jumpsuit.
   "And  now..."  Han  said, holding up a large bouquet  of  green
fronds  sprinkled  with  purple and  white  star-shaped  blossoms.
Grinning, he waggled the flowers.
   "Oh, Dad, you remembered!"
   Jacen  ran  forward  ecstatically. "My stump lizard's  favorite
food."  He  took the leafy bundle gratefully and said, "I'll  feed
'em to her right away. See you later, Dad." Then he ran off in the
direction of the Great Temple.
   Jaina  stood alone with her father, looking expectantly at  the
last  bulky  package he held in his arms. He set it on  the  weedy
ground  of  the  landing clearing and stepped back so  that  Jaina
could pull aside the rags that covered it.
   "Great wrapping job, Dad," she said, smiling.
   "Hey, it works." Han spread his hands.
   Jaina  gasped as she removed the coverings, then looked  up  at
her  father, who grinned and shrugged nonchalantly. "A  hyperdrive
unit!" she said.
   "It's not in working condition, you understand," he said.  "And
it's  pretty old. I got it off an old Imperial Delta-class shuttle
they were dismantling on Coruscant."
   Jaina  remembered  fondly the times she had helped  her  father
tinker  with  the Falcon's subsystems to keep it running  in  peak
condition-or  as close as they could get. "Oh, Dad,  you  couldn't
have  picked  a  better present!" She jumped up  and  hugged  him,
wrapping  her arms around his dark vest. She could tell  that  her
father  was  pleased-and  maybe even a little  embarrassed-by  her
enthusiasm.
   Her  father  looked  down at her and raised one  eyebrow.  "You
know,  there's a couple more components on the ship. If you wanted
to  help  me bring 'em out here, your dad could show you how  they
all go together."
   She ran after him into the ship.
   
   5
   
   It was late that morning when Jacen and Jaina finally caught up
with  their father, Chewbacca, and his nephew Lowbacca. The twins,
who  had spent hours at their respective assigned duties and  Jedi
training exercises, arrived back at the students' quarters just as
they saw the threesome emerge from a formerly empty room.
   "Hi!" Jacen called, hurrying up to Lowbacca with his sister  in
tow.  "Are you tired from your trip? If not, I could show  you  my
room.  I  have some really unusual pets. I collected most of  them
from  the  jungles  here and Jaina made some  cages  for  them-you
should  see  those cages-and Jaina could show you  her  room  too.
She's  got  all sorts of broken-down equipment that  she  uses  to
build  things out of." In his enthusiasm, Jacen never even  paused
to take a breath.
   The  much taller Lowbacca looked down at the human boy as Jacen
rattled on. "Do you like animals? Do you like to build things? Did
you  bring  any pets or equipment with you from Kashyyyk?  Do  you
like-"
   His  father chuckled into the stream of questions. "Therell  be
time enough for that later, kid. We spent most of the morning with
Luke,  and then we got Lowbacca settled in his room. You two  want
to  take  him on a tour of the academy, get him familiar with  the
place?  By  now,  you  probably know your way around  better  than
Chewie or I do."
   "We'd love to," Jaina answered before their father had finished
his sentence.
   "We're  the perfect tour guides," Jacen added with a  confident
shrug.  "Jaina and I came to the Jedi academy for the  first  time
when  we  were  only two years old." He smiled a  cocky,  lopsided
grin-the one their mother always said made him look just like  his
father.
   Lowbacca gave an interrogative growl. "He asked how many  times
you've given this tour," Han translated.
   "Well,"  Jacen sputtered, his face reddening slightly, "if  you
mean  in an official capacity, as opposed to, er, um..." His voice
trailed off.
   "What  he  means is," Jaina put in firmly, "this is  our  first
time."
   Lowbacca exchanged a glance with his uncle. Chewbacca raised  a
furred  brown arm, indicated the long corridor with a flourish  of
his hand, and gave a short bark.
   "Right," Han said. "Let's go."
   The twins led the group down a set of mossy, cracked stairs  to
the  main level and out onto the grassy clearing in front  of  the
Great  Temple. Jacen was eager to prove himself a good tour  guide
and  pointed to each squarish level of the gigantic pyramid as  he
spoke.
   "At  the very top is an observation deck that gives one of  the
best  views of the big planet Yavin overhead-unless of course  you
climb one of those huge old Massassi trees in the jungle," he said
with  a laugh. "The top level of the pyramid has only one enormous
room-  the  grand  audience chamber-that  can  hold  thousands  of
people."
   "That's  where the Jedi trainees gather when Uncle Luke-I  mean
Master Sky-walker-gives his lessons," Jaina said.
   Jacen  went  on  to  explain that the  lower  levels  had  been
remodeled  in  recent years. The larger level directly  below  the
grand   audience   chamber  housed  those   who   lived   at   the
academy-trainees, academy staff, and Master Skywalker  himself-and
also  contained  rooms  for  storage or  meditation,  as  well  as
chambers for guests and visiting dignitaries.
   The pyramid's huge ground level held the Communications Center,
the main computers, meeting areas and offices, and common rooms in
which  meals  were  prepped and eaten. It also held  the  Strategy
Center-the chamber that had been known as the War Room in the days
when  the  temple  had housed the Alliance's  secret  base.  Under
ground,  and  completely invisible from where they  stood,  was  a
gigantic hangar bay that stored shuttles, speeders, fighters,  and
other aircraft.
   On  two  sides  of the Great Temple and along the landing  area
flowed  broad  rivers, and beyond them lay  the  lush  and  mostly
unexplored jungles of the fourth moon of Yavin. "The temples  were
built  by  the  Massassi,  a mysterious ancient  race.  There  are
actually  lots  of structures scattered throughout  the  jungles,"
Jacen  said. "Some of them are just ruins, really-like the  Palace
of the Woolamander across the river there."
   He  described  the power-generating station next  to  the  main
temple,  a series of plate-shaped wheels, twice as tall  as  Jacen
himself,  standing on edge and connected through the center  by  a
long axle.
   "So  you  see," Jaina said, picking up the narration where  her
brother had left off, "with the power station, the river, and  the
jungles,  the  Jedi  academy is fairly self-sufficient.  Come  on,
let's go inside."
   The  tour  concluded at the twins' quarters,  where  Jacen  and
Jaina delighted in showing their father and the two Wookiees their
respective treasure troves of pets and salvaged bits of machinery.
Han  Solo beamed with fatherly pride. Lowbacca displayed a gratify
ing if subdued interest in the creatures in Jacen's menagerie.
   When the group moved into his sister's room, Jacen quickly slid
the  crystal snake he had been showing off back into its cage  and
hurried  after  them.  By the time he bounded  through  the  door,
Lowbacca  was  already engrossed in an assortment of  gadgets  and
wiring  that he had spread out across Jaina's floor.  He  was  far
more  interested  in  the  electronics than  in  the  wild  jungle
creatures.
   "Do you like working on machines, Chewie-uh, I mean, Lowbacca?"
Jaina asked, bending next to the gangly Wookiee.
   The  hairy, creature expressed his fascination with such a long
series of grunts, growls, and rumbles that Jacen was at a loss  to
understand how a simple yes-or-no question could produce  such  an
animated answer.
   As  usual,  their  father translated. "First of  all,  Lowbacca
would take it as a great sign of friendship if you would call  him
Lowie."
   Jacen gave a pleased nod. '"Lowie,' huh? I like that."
   "And  for  the rest..." Han continued, "well, I'm  not  sure  I
followed  it  all.  The  thing he really  gets  excited  about  is
computers."
   Jaina  patted the young Wookiee on the shoulder. "We can  do  a
lot  of things together, then, Lowie." Chewbacca chuffed in  agree
ment.
   But  Jaina's forehead furrowed with sudden concern. "Uh,  Dad?"
she  said.  "It's obvious that Lowie has studied our language  and
understands  us  as well as Chewie does. But we  can't  understand
him.  After all, it took you years to learn the Wookiee  language.
How  is  he going to get by here at the Jedi academy where  nobody
can understand him?"
   Jacen  nodded agreement, looking at the young Wookiee.  "Who'll
translate for us?"
   They  were interrupted at this point by a triumphant bark  from
Chewbacca.
   "We have just the answer for you," Han said, clapping his hands
and  rubbing  them together. "A little something that See-Threepio
and Chewie cooked up."
   Chewbacca  turned  and  held out a shiny  metallic  device  for
everyone   to  see.  The  sidewise-ovoid  apparatus  was  silvery,
slightly  longer than Lowie's hand and about four  fingers  thick,
flat  on the back and rounded on the front. It looked like a face,
with  two yellow optical sensors unevenly spaced near the  top,  a
more  or  less  triangular protrusion toward  the  center,  and  a
perforated  oblong on the lower portion that Jacen took  to  be  a
speaker.
   Chewbacca fiddled with something at the back of the device, and
the  yellow eyes flickered to life. A thin metallic voice, careful
and  correct,  issued from the tiny speaker. "Greetings.  I  am  a
Miniaturized  Translator  Droid-Em Teedee-specializing  in  human-
Wookiee relations. I am fluent in over six forms of communication.
My primary programmed function is to translate Wookiee speech into
other  humanoid languages." It paused expectantly and then  added,
"Might I be of assistance?"
   Jacen laughed. "It can't be!"
   Jaina gasped. "Sounds just like Threepio!"
   "Almost,"  their  father  replied, his  mouth  twisted  in  wry
amusement. He scratched under his collar with one lazy finger.  "A
little too much like Threepio, for my money. But since he did most
of  the programming on Em Teedee, I couldn't talk him out of  it."
He shrugged apologetically.
   "Why  don't  you  kids  try  it out  during  the  midday  meal?
Chewbacca  and  I still have some business to discuss  with  Luke,
then  well take off in the Falcon later this afternoon. We've  got
to see Lando at his mining station."
   The  common  room  the Jedi trainees used as a  mess  hall  was
filled  with  wooden tables of various heights. The  seats-chairs,
benches,  nests,  ledges, cushions, and  stools-came  in  a  broad
variety  of shapes and sizes to accommodate the differing  customs
and anatomies of human and alien students.
   The  plantlike members of the Jedi academy had gone outside  to
the  bright sun-washed steps of the Great Temple, where they could
soak  up  light  from  Yavin's white sun and  photosynthesize  for
nutrients,  adding small packets of minerals into their  digestive
orifices. Inside the mess hall, though, dozens of unusual  species
sat together eating exotic foods particular to their own kind.
   Jacen  followed a step behind, still chattering about  the  old
Massassi  temples, as Jaina found a table at one end of the  large
hall  that had a chair appropriate for Lowbacca. So far Jacen  had
been  unable to elicit more than a few nods and gestures from  the
Wookiee,  who  seemed  deep in thought, intent  on  absorbing  the
smells, sights, and sounds around him.
   Determined  to start a real conversation with the new  trainee,
Jacen  cast about in his mind for a good question. So, Lowie,  how
much  stuff  do  you  need  to move in? Naw,  that  was  a  stupid
question.
   How about, How old are you? No, that would get him only a short
answer.  And anyway, their father had told them that earlier  this
morning.  Lowie  was  nineteen, barely an  adolescent  by  Wookiee
standards.  Maybe something like, How did you know you  wanted  to
become a Jedi? Yes, that was good.
   But before he could pose the question, the solid, muscular form
of Tenel Ka swung into the seat next to him, across from Lowbacca.
   "New  student," she said, acknowledging Lowbacca in the  brief,
direct way that was so characteristic of her.
   "Lowie,"  Jacen said, "this is our friend Tenel  Ka,  from  the
planet of Dathomir."
   "And  this," Jaina responded, making the introductions for  her
side  of  the table, "is Lowbacca, nephew of Chewbacca,  from  the
Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk."
   Tenel Ka rose formally and inclined her head, tossing her  red-
gold  hair. "Lowbacca of Kashyyyk, I greet you," she said, and  re
sumed  her seat. Lowbacca nodded in return and uttered three short
growls.
   Jacen  waited  for  a moment, looking at the little  translator
droid clipped to Lowie's belt, but nothing happened.
   "Well?"  Jaina  said expectantly. "You going to  translate  for
its, Em Teedee?"
   "Goodness  me,  Mistress  Jaina, I am sorry,"  the  tiny  droid
replied  in  a flustered, mechanical voice. "Oh, how dreadful!  My
initial  opportunity  to perform my primary  function  for  Master
Lowbacca,  and  I've  failed  him.  I  assure  you,  masters   and
mistresses  all,  that from now on I will endeavor  to  make  each
translation as speedily and as eloquently as possible-"
   Lowbacca interrupted the translator droid's self-reproach  with
a sharp growl.
   "Translate?" the little droid replied. "Translate what? Oh! Oh,
I  see. Yes. Immediately." Em Teedee made a noise that sounded for
all  the  world as if it was clearing its throat, and then  began.
"Master  Lowbacca says, 'May no sun rise upon a day, nor any  moon
rise upon a night, in which, he is not as honored to see you,  and
to be in your presence, as he is at this very moment.'"
   Jaina  rolled her eyes. Jacen shook his head in disbelief.  But
Tenel Ka's face remained expressionless.
   From  the  corner  of  his  eye,  Jacen  caught  sight  of  the
troublesome young student Raynar in his colorful robes, snickering
at  them  from a nearby table. Automated servers carried  generous
bowls  of food from the kitchen and placed them in front  of  each
trainee.
   But  Jacen's attention was brought back to his own  table  when
Lowie  growled  down into the optical sensors  of  the  translator
droid.
   "Well,  so  what  if I did embellish a bit?"  the  droid  asked
defensively, as a plate of steaming, blood-red meat was placed  in
front  of  the Wookiee. "I was only attempting to make  you  sound
more civilized."
   Lowbacca's threatening growl left no doubt as to whether he was
grateful to the droid.
   'Very well," Em Teedee huffed. "Perhaps a better translation of
Master Lowbacca's words would have been, 'The sun has never shined
so brightly for this humble Wookiee as on this day we meet.'"
   Jacen  accepted a hot cup of soup that his sister passed across
the table to him. He shot a questioning look at Lowie, who growled
again at Em Teedee.
   "Well, have it your way then," the droid said haughtily, but in
a  more subdued voice, "But I assure you that my translations were
much more refined. Ahem, What Master Lowbacca actually said was, 1
am pleased to meet you.'"
   When  the  Wookiee  finally grunted in satisfaction,  Tenel  Ka
replied  gravely,  as  if  she had not  heard  any  of  the  other
translations, "It is a pleasure shared, Lowbacca."
   As  an  automated  tray  trundled past toward  Raynar's  nearby
table,  Tenel  Ka reached out and snagged the last  jug  of  fresh
juice. She poured the rich ruby liquid into each of their cups and
then set the jug with a gentle thump on the table before them. She
blinked her cool gray eyes and solemnly held out her cup.
   "Jacen   and  Jaina  are  already  my  friends.  I  offer   you
friendship, Lowbacca of Kashyyyk."
   The  Wookiee hesitated, unsure of what to do. Jaina  pressed  a
cup into his hand. Jacen raised his and said, "Friendship."
   "Friendship," Jaina echoed.
   Nodding, Lowie lifted his glass high in the air, threw his head
back, and let out a roar that rang through the hall.
   The  small  voice of Em Teedee broke the silence that followed.
"Master   Lowbacca  most  emphatically  accepts  your   offer   of
friendship  and  extends  his own." To  everyone's  surprise,  the
Wookiee did not correct the translator.
   "Accepted,"  Tenel Ka said, taking a drink. When  everyone  had
followed suit, she said, "And now we are friends."
   "That means you can call him Lowie now," Jaina said.
   Tenel  Ka considered this for a moment. "I choose to honor  him
by using his complete name."
   At  another  table, three short reptilian Cha'a  sat  around  a
trayful  of warm, rocking eggs, staring fixedly at them  like  the
predators  they were. When the eggs cracked and opened, the  Cha'a
lunged for the bright pink furry hatchlings as they emerged  fresh
from the shells.
   Two  whistling  avian  creatures shared  a  plateful  of  thin,
writhing  threads  covered with fluffy blue hair-tantalizing  ropy
caterpillars  which  they  slurped one at  a  time  through  their
narrow, horny beaks.
   As Jacen sat at the table spooning his soup, trying to think of
something amusing to say to Tenel Ka, or at least to continue  the
conversation  with Lowie, he caught a glimpse of movement  out  of
the corner of his eye-something slithering toward the table beside
them. A glassy glitter. A serpentine flash.
   Jacen's  heart leaped into his throat. He suddenly wondered  if
he  had fastened the cage of the crystal snake when his father and
the Wookiees had finished their tour of his chambers.
   "Hey,"  Raynar  said, leaning over the table beside  them,  his
flashy robes so brilliant that they made Jacen's eyes ache. "Would
you  mind  giving our juice jug back?" Raynar used  his  own  Jedi
powers to snatch the jug from their table and carry it through the
air  back  toward himself. "Next time please ask before  you  just
take  it." He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest with
a self-satisfied expression.
   Just  then, light fell on the crystal snake, and Jacen  saw  it
with  perfect clarity. It reared up on Raynar's lap and hissed  at
him, its flat triangular head staring the boy right in the face.
   Raynar saw it and shrieked, losing his Force concentration. The
jug  wobbled,  then  fell, spilling deep red juice  all  over  his
bright robes.
   Jacen  leaped to his feet and jumped for the snake. He  had  to
catch  it before it wreaked more havoc. He tackled Raynar,  trying
to  grab the serpent from the other boy's lap. Raynar, thinking he
was  being attacked from all sides, screamed in terror at the  top
of his lungs.
   As  he  and  Jacen struggled, their entire table toppled  over,
spilling  dark  brown pudding, knocking other beverage  containers
right and left, spraying food on Raynar's companions at the table.
   Tenel  Ka,  not understanding the problem but always  ready  to
defend  her  friends, jumped into the fray. She picked up  Jacen's
hot soup and hurled it toward Raynar's companions, who, seeing the
attack coming from a new front, decided to retaliate.
   A  platter  of  honeyed noodles sailed across the  dining  hall
toward  Jaina, but she ducked. The noodles instead splattered  and
clung to the bristly white fur of a Talz-a bearlike creature  that
stood up and blatted a musical note of dismay. When Jaina saw  the
noodles  sticking  to  the alien's white fur,  she  couldn't  stop
herself from laughing.
   The  crystal  snake  slithered out of Jacen's  grasp  as  Jacen
crawled across Raynar's squirming lap. The young Jedi screamed  as
if  he  were  being murdered, but Jacen scuttled under the  dining
tables  after  the serpent. Bumping one of the tables  over  while
grabbing  for  the snake, he felt smooth, dry scales  against  his
fingertips-but the snake slid through them, and he could not  hold
on.
   Another  table was knocked over as Lowie came to help.  With  a
flurry  of feathers, the avian creatures squawked and fought  over
their plateful of squirming, fuzzy blue thread-worms.
   More  food flew through the air, levitated by Jedi powers,  and
tossed from one table to another. The Jedi students were laughing,
seeing  it  now  as  a release from the tension  of  the  grueling
studies  and  deep  concentration required of  them  during  their
training.
   Steamed  leaves  flew  in  the faces of  the  reptilian  Cha'a,
interrupting  their predatory concentration.  All  three  of  them
stood up and whirled to meet the attack, back-to-back, standing in
a  three-point formation, hissing and glaring. The milky tan  eggs
on  their  eating platter continued to hatch, and the  pink  fuzzy
hatchlings chose that moment to escape.
   Lowie  let  out  a stone-rumbling Wookiee roar, and  Em  Teedee
squeaked  with  a highpitched alarm. "I can't see a thing,  Master
Lowbacca! Comestibles are obscuring my optical sensors. Do  please
clean them off!"
   Artoo-Detoo  trundled into the dining chamber and  let  out  an
electronic  wail,  but his droid cries were  drowned  out  by  the
laughter  and the tumult of flying food. Before Artoo could  wheel
around  and  sound  the  alarm, a large  tray  of  creamy  dessert
pastries  splattered  across his domed top. The  astro-mech  droid
beat a hasty, whirring retreat.
   As  the crystal snake slithered toward the cracked stone  walls
to  escape, Jacen desperately plowed forward. He reached out  with
one  hand and grabbed the pointed tail. The serpent rippled around
invisibly  in  a  fluid motion, flashing its fangs  toward  Jacen,
ready to bite down on the hand holding it. But Jacen held out  his
other  hand, pointing with his finger and the Force, touching  the
snake's tiny brain.
   "Hey!  Don't  you dare." he said aloud. Then,  as  the  crystal
snake  hesitated, Jacen grabbed it around the neck and  lifted  it
into  the  air.  The  lower  part of its  long  body  whipped  and
thrashed. Jacen coiled the snake around his arm and sent  soothing
thoughts into its mind. He stood up, grinning and relieved.
   "I  got  it!" he cried in triumph-just as three overripe fruits
splashed against his face and chest, bursting their thin skins and
spilling  rich purple pulp all over him. Jacen sputtered and  then
allowed  himself  to giggle, still maintaining  his  hold  on  the
crystal snake.
   "Stop!"  A  booming voice enhanced by the Force echoed  through
the dining hall.
   Suddenly everything froze as if time itself had paused. All the
flying food hung suspended in the air; each drip of liquid dangled
motionless  above the tables. All sound ceased, save for  that  of
the trainees' gasps.
   Master Luke Skywalker stood in the entrance to the dining  hall
wearing  a  stern  expression as he surveyed  the  suspended  food
fight.  Jacen looked at his uncle's expression and thought he  saw
anger, but also a concealed amusement.
   Luke  said,  "Was  this the best and most challenging  way  you
could  find to put your powers to use?" He gestured to all the  mo
tionless food and seemed very sad for a moment. Then he turned  to
leave-but  not before Jacen noticed a smile spreading  across  his
face.
   As he departed, Luke called, "Instead, perhaps you can use your
Jedi  powers... to clean up this mess." He gestured  briefly  with
his  right hand, and the suspended food platters, bowls  of  soup,
desserts,  fruits,  and messy confections were released,  tumbling
down  like  an avalanche. Practically everyone was splattered  all
over again as sticky gobbets sprayed into the air.
   Jacen  looked  at the aftermath of the food war. Still  holding
the crystal snake, he wiped a smear of frosting from his nose.
   The  other Jedi students, though subdued, began to chuckle with
relief, then set to work cleaning up.
   
   6
   
   The  warm  afternoon sun sparkled in the heavy,  moist  air  as
Lowbacca accompanied his uncle and Han Solo back to the Millennium
Falcon.  Beside  him  the Solo twins chattered  gaily,  apparently
oblivious  to the thick jungle heat. He could sense an  underlying
tension, though: Jacen and Jaina would miss their father every bit
as  much as he would miss his uncle Chewbacca, his mother, and the
rest of his family back on Kashyyyk.
   Lowbacca's  golden eyes flicked uneasily about the clearing  in
front  of the Great Temple. He was still uncomfortable with  wide-
open  spaces so close to the ground. On the Wookiee homeworld  all
cities  were  built  high in the tops of the massive  intertwining
trees,  supported by sturdy branches. Even the most courageous  of
Wookiees seldom ventured to the inhospitable lower levels  of  the
forest-much  less  all  the  way  to  the  ground,  where  dangers
abounded.
   To  Lowbacca, height meant civilization, comfort, safety, home.
And  although  the enormous Massassi trees towered  up  to  twenty
times  as  high as any other plant on Yavin 4, compared  with  the
trees of Kashyyyk they were midgets. Lowbacca wondered if he would
ever  find a place high enough on this small moon to make him feel
at ease.
   Lowie  was so lost in thought that he was startled to see  that
they had arrived at the Falcon.
   "Never  have  the  chance to do a preflight  when  we're  under
fire,"  Han Solo said, "but it's a good idea when we do  have  the
time."  Standing  at  the  foot  of  the  entry  ramp,  he  smiled
disarmingly  at them. "If you kids aren't too busy, Chewie  and  I
could use some help doing the preflight checks."
   "Great,"  Jaina  said before anyone else could  respond.  "I'll
take  the hyperdrive." She rushed up the ramp, pausing for only  a
millisecond  to brush a kiss on her father's cheek. "Thanks,  Dad.
You're the best."
   Han  Solo  looked  immensely pleased for a long  moment  before
bringing  himself back to business with a shake of his head.  "So,
kid,  you  got any preferences?" He looked at Lowie,  who  thought
briefly, then rumbled his reply.
   Although  Han Solo had doubtless understood him very well,  the
pesky  translator  droid  piped up.  "Master  Lowbacca  wishes  to
inspect  your ship's computer systems in order that he might  tell
it where to go."
   Han  Solo  gave Chewbacca a sidelong glance. "Thought you  said
you fixed that thing," he said, indicating Em Teedee. "It needs an
attitude adjustment."
   Chewbacca  shrugged  eloquently, gave  a  menacing  growl,  and
administered emergency repair procedure number one:  he  held  the
silvery  oval  with one huge hand while he shook the little  droid
until the circuits rattled.
   "Oh,  dear  me! Perhaps I could have been a bit more  precise,"
the  droid squeaked hastily. "Er... Master Lowbacca expresses  his
desire  to  perform  the  preflight checks  on  your  navigational
computer."
   "Good  idea, kid," Han Solo agreed, briskly rubbing  his  palms
together.  "Jacen, you take the exterior hull; see  if  anything's
nested  in  the exterior vents in the last couple of  hours.  I'll
start  on  the life-support systems. Chewie, you check  the  cargo
bay."
   This last was said with a lift of the chin and a twinkle in Han
Solo's  eye  that Lowbacca knew must have meant something  to  the
older Wookiee-but Lowie hadn't a clue. He wondered dispiritedly if
he would ever understand humans as well as his uncle did.
   The  navicomputer was an enjoyable challenge. Lowie ran through
all  the  preflight requirements twice-not because he  thought  he
might  have missed something the first time, but because  the  two
places he felt most at home were in the treetops and in front of a
computer.
   By  the  time Lowie completed his second run-through, Han  Solo
had  already  finished with the life-support systems and  was  now
checking  out the ship's emergency power generator.  When  he  saw
Lowbacca,  Han wiped his hands on a greasy rag, tossed  it  aside,
and  held  up one finger as if an idea had just come to him.  "Why
don't  you give your uncle a hand in the cargo hold while I finish
up here." His roguish grin was even more lopsided than usual.
   Lowbacca wondered what the smile meant and why his uncle should
still  need  his help with the cargo. Sometimes humans  were  very
difficult to understand. With a shrug, he headed toward the  cargo
bay.
   "Excuse me, Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee piped up, "but will you
be needing my translating services at this time?"
   Lowbacca growled a negative.
   "Very well, sir," Em Teedee said. "In that case, would you mind
if I put myself into a brief shutdown cycle? If you should require
my  assistance for any reason, please do not hesitate to interrupt
my rest cycle."
   Lowie  assured Em Teedee that the miniature droid would be  the
first to know if he needed anything from him.
   He  found his uncle clambering across a mountain of crates  and
bundles,  checking the securing straps. Apparently  Lando  Calris-
sian needed a good many supplies for his new mining operation.
   Even  in  the crowded cargo hold, he breathed deeply,  enjoying
the  mix  of familiar smells: speeder fuel, machined metal,  lubri
cants,  space  rations,  and Wookiee sweat-  enough  to  make  him
homesick for the treetop cities of Kashyyyk. He would have  little
access  to  speeders  or computers while he studied  at  the  Jedi
academy-with the exception, of course, of Em Teedee.  But  perhaps
he could console himself occasionally by climbing the jungle trees
and thinking of home.
   Maybe  he would do that after the Falcon took off, but for  now
there was work to do.
   Lowie  asked his uncle what still needed to be done, and  began
to  check the webbing on a pile of cargo that Chewbacca indicated.
The  straps  and  webbing were loose, and so was  the  cloth  that
covered  the  pile-so loose, in fact, that as  Lowbacca  began  to
work,  the  covering slid away entirely. His jaw dropped,  and  he
stepped back to admire what he had accidentally uncovered.
   The  air  speeder, dismantled into large components, was  still
recognizable.  It was an older model, a T-23 skyhopper,  with  con
trols similar to the X-wing fighter, but with trihedral wings, and
a  passenger seat and cramped cargo compartment at the rear of the
cockpit. The blue-metallic hull had been battered and stained with
age,  but  the  engine  mounted between the wings  looked  in  ser
viceable condition.
   He  glanced  up  to find his uncle staring at him  expectantly.
Then, to his great surprise, Chewbacca asked Lowie what he thought
of the craft.
   The  skyhopper  was compact and well constructed.  It  wouldn't
take  much  to  put all the pieces together again. He complimented
the  vintage speeder's lines and ventured a guess as to its  range
and  maneuverability.  Of  course, the onboard  computer  probably
needed a system overhaul and the exterior could use a bit of  body
work, but those were only minor drawbacks. The dings and scars  on
the hull only served to add character.
   With  a  satisfied growl, Chewbacca spread his  arms  wide  and
shocked  Lowie by telling him the T-23 was a going-away gift.  The
speeder belonged to Lowbacca, if he could assemble it.
   Lowbacca stood next to his T-23 in the clearing with Jacen  and
Jaina  and  waved  good-bye.  After a flurry  of  hugs,  exchanged
thanks,  and  last-minute  messages,  they  watched  as  Han   and
Chewbacca climbed back aboard the ship.
   Now  as  the Millennium Falcon cleared the treetops and  angled
into  the  deep blue sky, the three young Jedi trainees  continued
waving, each lost in thought for a long moment as they gazed after
the departing ship.
   At  last  Jaina heaved a sigh. "Well, Lowie," she said, rubbing
her  hands  together  with a look of gleeful anticipation  as  she
looked at the battered T-23. "Need any help getting this bucket of
bolts up and going?"
   Realizing that even though Jaina was younger, she probably  had
more  experience  tuning speeder engines than he  did,  he  nodded
gratefully.
   They  spent the next few hours preparing the T-23 for its first
flight  on  Yavin 4. Jacen occupied himself by telling jokes  that
Lowie   didn't  understand,  or  fetching  tools   for   the   two
enthusiastic mechanics. Jaina smiled as she worked,  glad  of  the
rare chance to share what she knew about speeders and engines  and
T-23s.
   When at last they finished and Lowbacca leaned into the cockpit
to  switch on the engine, the T-23 crackled, sputtered, and roared
to  life. It lifted off the ground on its lower repulsorlifts, and
a  bright  glow  spluttered from the ion afterburners.  The  three
friends let out two cheers and a bellow of triumph.
   "Need  anyone  to  take  her for a test  flight?"  Jaina  asked
hopefully.
   Lowie  stumbled over a tentative answer. "What Master  Lowbacca
is trying to say," said Em Teedee, who had long since finished his
rest  cycle,  "is that, as kind as your offer is, he would  vastly
prefer to pilot the first flight himself."
   Lowbacca grunted once.
   "And?" the little droid replied. "What do you mean, 'And?'  Oh,
I see-the other thing you said. But, sir, you didn't mean . . ."
   Lowbacca growled emphatically.
   "Well,  if you insist," Em Teedee said. "Ahem. Master  Lowbacca
also  says  that he would be honored to have you as his passenger,
Mistress  Jaina. However," he rushed on, "let me assure  you  that
last statement was made with the utmost reluctance."
   Lowbacca  groaned and hit his forehead with  the  heel  of  one
hairy hand in a Wookiee expression of complete embarrassment.
   "Well,  it's  certainly the truth," Em Teedee said defensively.
"I'm certain I didn't get the intonation wrong."
   Jaina,  who  had  at  first looked disappointed  at  Lowbacca's
reluctance,  now  seemed  amused at his  chagrin.  "I  understand,
Lowie,"  she said. "I'd want to take her out on my own  the  first
time, too. How about giving us a ride tomorrow?"
   Relieved that the twins were not upset, Lowbacca loudly agreed,
jumped into the cockpit, and strapped himself in. The whine of the
engines  drowned  out  Em Teedee's attempt at  translating.  Lowie
raised  a hand in salute, waited until Jacen and Jaina were clear,
brought  the  engines  to full power, and took  off,  heading  out
toward the vast jungle.
   The  T-23 maneuvered well, and Lowbacca reveled in the  feeling
of  height and freedom as he streaked away. But still he found him
self  yearning  for one more thing, something  that  he  had  been
thinking of all day.
   The trees. Tall, towering, safe trees.
   Scarcely half an hour later, far away from the Jedi academy and
the  Great Temple, he landed the T-23 on the sturdy treetops,  set
tling  the craft in the uppermost branches of the Massassi  trees.
The  tree  canopy was not as high as he was used to. The  air  was
thinner,  and  the  jungle  smells, though  not  unpleasant,  were
different from those of Kashyyyk. Even so, Lowbacca felt  more  at
peace  now than he had at any other moment since landing on  Yavin
4.
   Jacen had said that the huge orange gas giant overhead was best
viewed  from  a  Mas-sassi tree-and the human boy  was  definitely
right.  Lowie looked around in all directions-at the sky  and  the
trees,  at the crumbling ruins of smaller temples visible  through
breaks  in  the  canopy. He stared at the languid rivers,  at  the
strange  vegetation and animals around him. He sighed with relief.
He could find a place of contentment and solitude on this moon,  a
place where he could think of family and home while he studied  to
be a Jedi.
   As  the  late-afternoon  sunlight  slanted  through  the  thick
branches, a distant glint caught Lowbacca's eye. He wondered  what
it  could  be.  It was not the color of any vegetation  or  temple
ruins.  The light reflected from a shiny and evenly shaped  object
stuck  partway up a tree. Lowie leaned forward, as if  that  could
help  him  see more clearly. He wished he had brought  a  pair  of
macrobinoculars.
   Curiosity  and wonder struck a spark of excitement in  him.  He
wanted to get closer, but caution intervened. It was getting dark.
And  after all, if the object was important, wouldn't someone have
seen  it  long ago? Perhaps not. He doubted it could be seen  from
the  jungle floor, and it was unlikely that many students came out
and climbed to the top of the canopy, this far away from the Great
Temple.  He  was  almost  certain that  no  one  knew  about  this
discovery.
   Heart  pounding, Lowie made a mental note of the shiny object's
location.  He would come back the very first chance he got-he  had
to find out what it was.
   
   7
   
   "I wonder why Lowie never made it to evening meal," Jacen said.
Jaina  and Tenel Ka sat next to him in the grand audience chamber,
where   Luke  Skywalker  had  summoned  them  all  for  a  special
announcement.  Dusk  light shone like burning  metal  through  the
narrow  windows overhead, but the clean white glowpanels dispelled
shadows in the large, echoing room.
   "Maybe  he  was  having too much fun flying  his  T-23,"  Jaina
whispered. "I probably wouldn't have made it back either."
   "Perhaps,"  Tenel  Ka said in a low voice,  as  if  giving  the
matter serious consideration, "he was not hungry."
   Jacen  flashed  her a look of disbelief. "Hey,  a  Wookiee  not
hungry? Hah! And you say I make dumb jokes."
   Tenel Ka shrugged. "It is a thought."
   "Okay,  well,"  Jacen  said,  "I'm  not  kidding  now-what   if
something went wrong with the skyhopper? What if Lowie crashed  in
the jungle?"
   "Impossible," Jaina replied. Though she whispered, her tone was
clearly firm. "I checked all those systems myself."
   Tenel  Ka's eyebrows raised a fraction. "Ah. Ah-hah. So because
you  checked them, the systems could not malfunction?" She nodded,
and  Jacen  could  have sworn that he saw the shadow  of  a  smile
lurking at the corners of her lips.
   "Never mind-there's Lowie," Jacen said with relief, waving  his
arms to attract their Wookiee friend's attention.
   "See?" Jaina said smugly. "Told you nothing could happen."
   Jacen  pretended not to notice. "You're just in time," he  said
as  the  Wookiee  joined them. "Master Skywalker  should  be  here
anytime now."
   No  one really knew why this special twilight meeting had  been
called, but it was fairly unusual. Everyone who lived, worked,  or
trained at the Jedi academy had arrived, filling the chamber  with
a hushed excitement.
   Jacen whispered, "Where were you, Lowie?"
   Lowbacca responded in a low rumble, quieter than any Jacen  had
ever heard a Wookiee use. Without warning, Em Teedee announced  in
a  clear metallic voice, "Master Lowbacca wishes it known that  he
had  a  most successful expedition and-" The translator droid  cut
off  in midsentence as Lowbacca clamped a ginger-furred hand  over
the droid's mouth speaker.
   "Shhh!" Jaina hissed.
   "Can't you turn it down?" Jacen whispered.
   Curious eyes turned to stare at them from every section of  the
grand  audience chamber. Lowbacca hunched down in his seat with  a
chagrined  look  that needed no interpreter. He  craned  his  neck
forward  to  stare  at the droid clipped to his  webbed  belt.  He
issued a series of soft, sharp mutters.
   "Oh!  Oh, dear me," Em Teedee replied in an enthusiastic though
much  quieter  voice. "I do beg your pardon. I did not  fully  com
prehend  that  you  didn't  intend to share  your  discovery  with
everyone present."
   "Discovery?" Jacen said. "What did you-"
   But Master Skywalker chose that moment to make his entrance.  A
hush  fell  over the crowd, putting an end to all  hope  of  Jacen
satisfying  his curiosity before the meeting began.  Luke  mounted
the  steps  to  the wide raised platform, closely  followed  by  a
slender  woman with flowing silvery-white hair and huge opalescent
eyes.
   "Thank  you  for  gathering here on such  short  notice,"  Luke
began.  "I  received news this morning of a pressing  matter  that
call me away."
   As  if  from a pebble tossed into a pond, a series of surprised
murmurs rippled through the room. Jacen wondered if his uncle's im
minent  departure had anything to do with the messages brought  by
his father on the Falcon.
   The  blue eyes that looked out over the audience-kind eyes that
seemed  wise  beyond their years-gave no hint  of  what  the  Jedi
Master's mission might be.
   "I  don't know how long I will be gone, so I've asked one of my
former  students,  the Jedi Tionne"-he gestured  to  the  slender,
shimmering-eyed woman beside him-"to supervise your training while
I'm away. Not only does Tionne know my teachings almost as well as
I  do,  but she has a rich knowledge of Jedi lore and history.  As
you are about to find out, she's well worth listening to."
   This intrigued Jacen. He remembered hearing that she was not  a
particularly  strong  Jedi, but from the warm  smile  that  passed
between  Luke and Tionne, he could tell that they understood  each
other well, and that Master Skywalker must have complete trust  in
his former student.
   As  Luke withdrew from the platform, leaving the students alone
with  Tionne, the silver-haired Jedi retrieved a curiously  shaped
stringed instrument from somewhere behind her. It consisted of two
resonating boxes, one at either end of a slender fretted neck. The
strings  stretching  across the instrument flared  out  in  a  fan
pattern at both ends.
   Seating herself on a low stool, Tionne began to strum. "I  will
tell  you about a Jedi Master who lived long ago," she said. "This
is the ballad of Master Vodo-Siosk Baas."
   As  she began to sing, Jacen agreed with his uncle; Tionne  was
indeed worth listening to. Her song rang clear and true. Its  pure
tones carried easily to the farthest corners of the great hall and
transported them all to a time they had never witnessed. The music
flowed  around them, sweeping them along on currents of excitement
and courage and triumph and sacrifice.
   She  sang  of  dire events that had taken place  four  thousand
years  earlier-how  the strange, alien Jedi  Master  had  been  de
stroyed  by Exar Kun, one of his. own students who had  turned  to
the  dark side. Master Vodo had begged the other Jedi Masters  not
to  do  battle  with Exar Kun, and had tried to  reason  with  him
alone-though his gentle hopes had ended in tragedy.
   In  the  silence  that followed her song, a  flood  of  insight
washed  through  Jacen as he realized that  this  Jedi  was  worth
listening to for more than just her voice.
   Tionne stood, to a collective sigh from everyone present. Jacen
hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath.
   "I  trust my first lesson to you hasn't been too painful,"  she
said  with  a merry twinkle in her pearly eyes. "Tomorrow  I  will
give another lesson, after morning meal."
   With  that, the evening meeting ended. Some listeners  remained
seated,  transfixed, as if trying to absorb the last  trickles  of
music  lingering in the room. Others left singly or in  whispering
groups, while still others stayed behind to talk with Tionne.
   Jacen,  Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca found themselves free  at
last to talk. They huddled together and discussed Lowie's find. Em
Teedee-carefully modulating his voice to an appropriate, secretive
level-provided translations.
   They speculated by turns about the strange glinting object that
Lowbacca had seen out in the jungle. They came to only one  conclu
sion:  at  the  earliest possible opportunity, they would  go  out
together and investigate.
   Tionne's  morning ballad fell in a fine musical mist, drenching
its  listeners  with wonder and ancient lore.  Jacen  sat  in  the
second  row with his brandy-colored eyes closed, concentrating  on
her words, trying to absorb everything the music had to teach him.
It  was  just as well that his eyes were shut, since his view  was
completely  blocked  by the colorful bulk of  Raynar  wearing  his
finest robes.
   As  the last notes drained away, Jacen opened his eyes to  find
his  sister  staring at him in silent amusement. Neither  Lowbacca
nor  Tenel  Ka, who sat beside him, gave any indication that  they
had  noticed Jacen's apparent absorption in the music. Then Tionne
spoke, drawing Jacen's attention back to the silver-haired Jedi on
the raised platform.
   "A  Jedi's greatest power comes not from size or from  physical
strength,"  she said. "It comes from understanding the  Force-from
trusting  in  the  Force. As part of your Jedi training  you  will
learn  to  build  your  confidence and  belief  through  practice.
Without  that  practice  we  may  not  succeed  when  it  is  most
important. This is true of many skills in life. Listen to a story.
   "Once, a young girl lived by a lake. Simply by watching others,
she  learned much about how to swim. One day when her  family  was
busy, the girl jumped into the deep water. Although she moved  her
arms  and  legs as she had seen other swimmers do, she  could  not
keep her head above the water.
   "Fortunately  a  fisherwoman jumped in  and  rescued  her.  The
woman,  a practiced swimmer, had not needed to think about how  to
swim, but the little girl-who had only learned by watching-did not
have the skill even to stay afloat. After they were safely out  of
the water, the fisherwoman took the girl's hand and said, 'Come to
the shallows, child, and I will teach you to swim.'"
   Tionne   paused  as  if  lost  in  thought,  her  pearly   eyes
glittering. "So it is with the Force. Unless we practice  what  we
learn, and unless we are tested, we never know we can trust in the
Force  if the need arises. That is why this Jedi academy  is  also
called  a praxeum. It is a place where we not only learn,  but  we
put  the  learning to use. As with swimming, the more we practice,
the  more confidence we have. Eventually, our skill becomes second
nature.
   "The  next  several  days  I  would  like  the  beginning   and
intermediate  students to practice one of the most  basic  skills:
using  the  Force  to  lift.  For  today,  practice  lifting  only
something small-no bigger than a leaf."
   Raynar interrupted in a blustery voice, "How can you expect  us
to strengthen our skills if you take us back to a child's level?"
   Jacen rolled his eyes at Raynar's rudeness, but he had to admit
that he had been wondering the same thing.
   Tionne  smiled  down  at  Raynar  without  annoyance.  "A  good
question.  Let me give you an example. If you wanted to strengthen
your  arms, you might lift many stones one time, or you might lift
one  stone  many times. It is the same with your Jedi skills.  For
today,  practice just as I have asked you. It is not the only  way
to  strengthen  your skills, but it is one way. There  are  always
alternatives. I promise you will learn more than just how to  lift
a leaf."
   Tionne  dismissed the students. As they left the grand audience
chamber  and started down the worn stone stairs, Jaina pulled  the
other  three  young  Jedi to a halt, her eyes  dancing.  "Are  you
thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.
   Jacen,  who  did  not  know what she was thinking,  nonetheless
sensed her excitement and her eagerness to investigate Lowie's mys
terious discovery.
   Jaina  shrugged. "What better place to practice lifting  leaves
than out in a jungle?"
   
   8
   
   "You  sure  this  seat  is safe?" Jacen asked  as  he  squeezed
himself into the cargo well behind the T-23's passenger seat.
   "Of  course  it  is," his sister replied automatically  as  she
climbed  into  the front. "You like crawling into  cramped  spaces
anyway."
   "Only to catch bugs," he grumbled. "There's no cushioning  back
here."
   The  cargo well was much too small to accommodate Tenel Ka, who
was  taller and more solidly built than either of the twins. Jacen
would  have  to settle for the back or be left behind; his  sister
would  take  her  turn there on the return trip. He  squirmed  and
settled in as the T-23's engines started with a roaring purr.
   Lowie   called  a  command  over  the  sound  of  the   warming
repulsorlifts. Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca requests that  you
please  be  certain  that  your  restraints  are  secure.  He   is
interested   in  your  utmost  safety.  We  shall   be   departing
momentarily."
   Lowbacca's  voice barked out again, and the droid  amended  his
translation. "Actually, Master Lowbacca might have said  something
closer to, 'Hold on, everyone. Here we go!'"
   "Oh, blaster bolts. No crash straps either," Jacen observed  as
Jaina and Tenel Ka buckled themselves in up front.
   The  rebuilt T-23 lifted off with a small jerk. The wind howled
past  the  rattling  window plates as they picked  up  height  and
speed.  Jacen  felt  the  thrill of  being  airborne  as  the  ion
afterburners spluttered behind them. Even cramped in the back,  he
was glad he hadn't stayed behind.
   Jacen looked out through the scratched port as Lowbacca let the
skyhopper  skim just above the treetops, arrowing  away  from  the
Jedi  academy  into unexplored territory. Soon there were  nothing
but trees as far as Jacen could see through the scratched port, as
lush and green as the sky above him was blue.
   Though  he  enjoyed the lovely foliage below him, Jacen's  legs
began to cramp. By the time the T-23 dove down and came to rest in
a  small clearing, he could feel the engine vibrations all the way
to his teeth.
   Up  front,  Jaina and Tenel Ka unbuckled their  restraints  and
scrambled nimbly out of the T-23. Jacen dragged himself  from  the
cargo  well, stretching his stiff legs as he stepped out into  the
tangled  underbrush. He rubbed the seat of his jumpsuit with  both
hands to get the circulation going again. "I think a leaf is about
all I could lift right now!"
   Lowie rushed to the edge of the clearing, beckoning the others.
"Master Lowbacca says the tree holding the artifact is over here,"
Em  Teedee called. "It has several broken branches, so he was able
to locate it easily from the air."
   Jaina  looked  in  the  direction that Lowbacca  was  pointing.
"Well,  what are we waiting for?" she said. Tenel Ka marched  over
to  the  young  Wookiee, as if ready to carve a path  through  the
jungle. Jacen took a long and wistful look at all the strange  new
plants  he saw around him, but followed the others into  the  deep
green shadows.
   Lowbacca  gestured up into the distant branches of an  enormous
Massassi  tree.  The  trunk seemed as big around  as  one  of  the
skyscrapers  on  city-covered  Coruscant,  and  even  the   lowest
branches were well out of Jacen's reach. But Lowie wanted them  to
climb up after him!
   "Oh,"  said Jaina, a crestfallen look on her face, "I  wouldn't
get very far climbing that."
   Lowbacca  assured them, via Em Teedee, that the climb would  be
easy  for  a  Wookiee.  He offered to go up alone  for  the  first
investigation  and report his findings so they  could  decide  the
next step.
   "We  can  explore down here," Jacen suggested. "We  might  find
some  other  pieces  of...  of whatever  it  is."  Or  maybe  some
interesting animals or fungus or insects, he thought hopefully.
   Jaina  and  Tenel Ka readily agreed. Low-bacca swiped  a  hairy
hand  along the thick black streak that ran through the fur  above
his  left  eyebrow. He swarmed up the trunk, swung into the  lower
branches, and soon disappeared from sight.
   Jacen's stomach rumbled with hunger, and he hoped that Lowbacca
would  hurry.  The three young Jedi trainees poked around  in  the
underbrush,  spiraling  out from the T-23 in  a  wandering  search
pattern.   Taking   turns,  they  practiced   their   leaf-lifting
assignment, fluttering leaves in the shrubbery, lifting dry forest
debris from the damp and mossy ground.
   Before long, Lowbacca came crashing back down through the thick
branches.  He dropped to the ground near them and let out  a  loud
Wookiee cry.
   Jaina  ran toward him, eager and interested. "Did you find  it,
Lowie?"
   Lowbacca nodded vigorously.
   "What was it?" Jaina asked. "Can you describe it?"
   "Master  Lowbacca believes it to be some sort of solar  panel,"
Em  Teedee  translated  as  the Wookiee replied.  Then  the  droid
launched into a complete description.
   Jaina  felt  her  skin prickle with goose bumps.  "Hmmmm,"  she
said.  "If I'm right, there should be a lot more to that  artifact
than what Lowie saw. Let's keep looking."
   Tenel Ka dug into a small supply pouch she carried with her and
withdrew  a pack of carbo-protein biscuits. "Here. Nourishment  as
we search."
   Jacen  chomped  hungrily  on his biscuit.  "Just  what  are  we
looking  for,  Jaina?"  he asked, speaking around  a  mouthful  of
crumbs.
   "Scrap metal, machinery, another solar panel." Jaina shaded her
eyes,  scanning deeper into the thick jungles around  them.  "Well
keep  widening  the circle of our search until we find  something.
What we're looking for shouldn't be too far away."
   Jacen  retrieved a flask of water from the T-23, took  a  gulp,
and  handed it to his sister. Jaina took a few mouthfuls of  water
and  passed the flask on to Lowbacca. Then she set off at  a  trot
for the base of the big tree. Jaina didn't look back to see if the
others  were following, and bit her lip, feeling a brief  pang  of
guilt.
   At  times  like this Jaina always seemed to assume  leadership,
just  like her mother. But how could she help it? Her parents  had
raised  all  three of their children to assess a situation,  weigh
the alternatives, and make decisions.
   "Let's spread out," she said.
   "Great!" Jacen said, walking around the massive trunk toward  a
clump of dense undergrowth.
   Jaina  smiled, knowing full well that her brother's  excitement
came  not from a desire to find the mysterious artifact, but  from
the  opportunity to explore the jungle and examine  its  creatures
more closely.
   She was about to head into the underbrush herself when Lowbacca
stopped  her  with  a  questioning growl.  Em  Teedee  translated.
"Master  Lowbacca says-and I personally am inclined to agree  with
him-that the jungle floor is not a safe place to split up. Even to
speed up a search."
   As  impatient as she was to continue looking, Jaina stopped  to
consider.  Tenel Ka caught her eye, placed her hands on her  hips,
and nodded. "This is a fact."
   Jaina  gnawed at her lower lip again, thinking, and came  to  a
decision. "All right. We spread out a little but, but only as  far
as our line of sight. Good enough?"
   The  others' murmurs of agreement were interrupted  by  a  loud
squawking as a flock of reptile birds took flight from the  bushes
near where Jacen had been exploring. Jacen emerged from the bushes
on his hands and knees, looking startled, but not displeased.
   "No  big  discoveries," he reported, "but I did find this."  He
held  out  his  palm.  In  it was a plump,  furry  gray  creature,
quivering in a small nest of glossy fibers.
   Another  animal. Jaina sighed with resignation. She might  have
guessed.
   "Ah.  A-hah,"  Tenel Ka said. Lowbacca bent forward  to  run  a
shaggy finger along the tiny creature's back.
   "Look, Jaina," Jacen said, turning the fluffy nest in his hand.
He  pointed to a dull, flat loop of metal that was firmly attached
to the mass of fibers.
   "A ... buckle?" Jaina said, finally comprehending.
   Her brother nodded. "Like the kind in crash webbing."
   "Good work," Tenel Ka said with solemn approval.
   "Well,  what  are  we  waiting for?" Jaina asked.  "Let's  keep
going."
   By midafternoon, though, Jaina began to get discouraged. Jacen,
on  the  other hand, was intrigued by every crawling  creature  or
insect they encountered.
   "Do please try to be a bit more cautious!" Jaina could hear  Em
Teedee  saying. "That's the third dent today. And I've lost  count
of  how  many scratches I've received while you've been exploring.
Now if you would only be more attentive to-"
   Em  Teedee's  admonishments were drowned out as  Lowie  gave  a
sharp bark of surprise behind a tangle of vines and branches. "Oh!
Oh,  my.  Mistress  Jaina, Master Jacen, Mistress  Tenel  Ka!"  Em
Teedee's  voice was loud enough to startle not only  Jaina  but  a
number  of flying and climbing creatures. "Do come quickly. Master
Low-bacca has made a discovery."
   Needing  no  further encouragement, all of them rushed  to  see
what  Lowbacca  had found. Jaina felt her heart  pounding  in  her
chest, knowing and dreading what they would find.
   They worked quickly, scratching and cutting their hands as they
pulled  away  the  thick plant growth from the  heap  of  metallic
wreckage.  Jaina  gasped  as they finally  exposed  it-a  rounded,
tarnished  cockpit  large  enough only for  a  single  pilot,  one
squarish  black solar panel crisscrossed with support braces.  The
other  panel  was  missing, stuck up in the tree where  Lowie  had
found it. But still the ship was unmistakable.
   A crashed Imperial TIE fighter.
   
   9
   
   "But why would such a craft be here in the jungles of Yavin 4?"
Tenel  Ka  asked, narrowing her eyes in concern as they worked  to
remove  the  debris from the ruined craft. "Is it an Imperial  spy
ship?"
   Jaina  shook her head. "Can't be. TIE fighters were short-range
ships  used  by the Empire. They weren't equipped with hyperdrive,
so there aren't many ways it could have gotten here."
   Jacen  cleared his throat. "Well, I can think of one  way,"  he
said, "but that would make this ship-let's see..."
   "Over  twenty  years  old..."  Jaina  breathed,  finishing  his
sentence for him.
   Lowbacca  made a low, questioning noise, and Tenel Ka continued
to look perplexed.
   Jaina  explained. "When the Empire built the first Death  Star,
it  was  the  most powerful weapon ever made. They  tested  it  by
destroying Alderaan, our mother's homeworld. Then they brought  it
here to Yavin 4, to destroy the Rebel base."
   As  she spoke, Jaina pulled the last bit of brush away from the
top  canopy  of the TIE fighter and looked inside. There  were  no
bones. She slid into the musty cockpit.
   "A  lot of Rebel pilots died in one-on-one combat with the  TIE
fighters  that  protected the Death Star, and a  lot  of  Imperial
fighters were shot down too," Jacen said, picking up the story.
   Jaina  wrinkled her nose at the mildewy smell, the mold-clogged
controls.  She ran her fingers over the navigation panels  in  the
cockpit,  closing her eyes and wondering what it  must  have  been
like twenty-some years ago to be a fighter pilot in the Battle  of
Yavin 4. She envisioned an enemy fighter swooping toward her in  a
strafing  run,  her  engine hit, her tiny ship  careening  out  of
control. ...
   Jacen's  voice broke into her thoughts. "But then in  the  end,
our  dad flew cover for Uncle Luke's X-wing fighter while he  took
his  final  run. Uncle Luke made the shot that blew up  the  Death
Star."
   Tenel  Ka  nodded  gravely, her braided red-gold  hair  like  a
wreath around her head. "And why is it called a TIE fighter?"  she
asked.
   Jaina  answered, speaking up from the cockpit, "Because it  has
twin ion engines. T-I-E, see?"
   Ducking  her  head,  she wormed her way to  the  engine  access
panels  at  the  rear of the cockpit and pried open the  tarnished
metal  plate. A squeaking rodent, disturbed from its hidden  nest,
scampered away, vanishing through a small hole in the hull.
   Jaina tinkered with the engines, checking integrity, noting the
rotted  hoses and fuel lines. But overall, the primary  motivators
seemed  intact, though she would have to run numerous diagnostics.
She had plenty of spare parts in her room.
   She  stood  up  slowly in the cockpit and poked  her  head  out
again,  then ran her callused hands along the side of the  crashed
TIE fighter. "You know, I think we could do it," Jaina said.
   All eyes turned toward her, questioning.
   "I think we could fix the TIE fighter."
   Her brother stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, then
clapped  a  palm  to his forehead. "I've got a bad  feeling  about
this."
   As  the  whine  of  the T-23 skyhopper faded  into  the  jungle
distance, the frightened forest creatures settled back into  their
routines. They scuttled through the underbrush, chasing each other
across  the  branches, predator and prey. The leaves  stirred  and
flying  creatures  sent  their  cries  from  treetop  to  treetop,
forgetting the intruders entirely.
   Far  below on the forest floor, the branches of a dense thicket
parted.  A  worn  and tattered black glove pushed  a  thorny  twig
aside.
   The  pilot  of the crashed TIE fighter emerged from his  hiding
place into the newly trampled clearing.
   "Surrender is betrayal," he muttered to himself, as he had done
so  many times before. It had become a litany during his years  of
rugged survival on the isolated jungle moon of Yavin.
   The  pilot's  protective uniform hung in rags  from  his  gaunt
frame,  worn  to tatters and patched with furs from an  incredible
number  of years living alone in the jungle. His left arm, injured
during  the  crash, was drawn up like a twisted claw  against  his
chest.  He stepped forward, cracking twigs under his old boots  as
he  made  his way to the crash site that was no longer secret.  He
had  camouflaged the wrecked Imperial craft many years ago, hiding
it  from  Rebel eyes. But now, despite all his work, it  had  been
discovered.
   "Surrender is betrayal," he said again. He stared down  at  his
fighter, trying to see what damage the Rebel spies had caused.
   
   10
   
   Over the next few days, Tionne increased the complexity of  the
young   Jedi   trainees'  assignments,  and  the  four  companions
practiced fine-tuning their control of the Force.
   Jaina, Jacen, Lowie, and Tenel Ka found excuses to return again
and  again to the site of the crashed TIE fighter. With  Jaina  as
the  driving  force, they took on the repair project  as  a  group
exercise-but they always managed to work in any assigned  practice
sessions during their jungle expeditions.
   Although the idea was not flattering, Jaina was forced to admit
that  part  of  her  motivation for this  work  was  her  envy  of
Lowbacca's personal T-23-she wanted her own craft to fly over  the
treetops. But she was also drawn by the challenge the wrecked  TIE
fighter  represented.  Its  age and complexity  offered  a  unique
opportunity for learning about mechanics, and Jaina could not turn
it down.
   But  the strongest reason for taking on the project-and perhaps
the  one that kept them all working without complaint-was that  it
forged a bond among the four friends. They learned to function  as
a  team,  to make the most of each person's strengths and  to  com
pensate  for  each  other's  weaknesses.  The  strands  of   their
friendships intertwined and wove together in a pattern  as  simple
as  it  was strong. This bond included even Em Teedee, who learned
to   make  verbal  contributions  at  appropriate  times  and  was
gradually accepted as a member of their group.
   Jaina spent most of her time overseeing the mechanical repairs,
while  Lowbacca  concentrated on the computer systems.  Jacen  had
ample opportunity to explore and to observe the local wildlife as,
officially, he "searched" through the nearby underbrush for broken
or missing components; he also made quick supply trips back to the
academy in the T-23 for parts that Jaina or Lowbacca needed. Tenel
Ka  worked with quiet competence on any task that needed doing and
was especially valuable in lugging new metal plates to patch large
breaches in the TIE hull.
   "Hey, Tenel Ka!" Jacen said. "What goes ha-ha-ha . . . thump!"
   Her  gray  eyes  looked at him, as lustrous as highly  polished
stones. "I don't know."
   "A  droid  laughing  its head off!" Jacen  said,  then  started
giggling.
   "Ah.  A-hah," Tenel Ka said. She considered this for a  moment,
then  added  without the slightest trace of mirth, "Yes,  that  is
very funny." She bent back to her work.
   From  time  to time Lowie climbed to the top of the  canopy  to
meditate  and absorb the solitude; the young Wookiee  enjoyed  his
time  alone, sitting in silence. Tenel Ka occasionally took  short
breaks to test her athletic skills by running through jungle under
growth or climbing trees.
   But  Jaina  preferred  to  stay with the  downed  TIE  fighter,
examining it from every angle and imagining possibilities. She con
sidered no bodily position too difficult or undignified to  assume
while repairing the craft.
   Jaina tucked her head under the cockpit control panel, with her
stomach  supported by the back of the pilot's seat.  Her  backside
was  sticking  high in the air and her feet were  kicking  as  she
worked, when she felt a playful poke on the leg.
   She  extricated herself from the awkward position. Lowie handed
her  a  datapad  into which he had downloaded the  schematics  and
specifications for a TIE fighter, taken from the main  information
files  in  the  computer center back at the  Great  Temple.  Jaina
studied  the  data  and  looked over the list  of  computer  parts
Lowbacca needed.
   "These  should be pretty easy for Jacen to find," she said.  "I
have most of them right in my room."
   Em  Teedee  spoke  up. "Master Lowbacca wishes  to  know  which
systems you intend to concentrate on next."
   Jaina's  brow  furrowed  in  judicious  concentration.   "We've
already  decided we won't be needing the weapons systems. I  think
the laser cannons work fine, but I don't intend to hook them up. I
suppose  the  next step might be to work on the power  systems.  I
haven't done much with them yet."
   Jacen and Tenel Ka trotted up to join the discussion. "You will
need the other solar panel," Tenel Ka said. "Up in the tree."
   Jacen  cocked an eyebrow at her, using Tenel Ka's  own  phrase.
"This is a fact?" Tenel Ka did not smile, but nodded her approval.
   Jacen folded his arms across his chest and looked pleased  with
himself. "Does anyone remember the assignment Tionne gave  us  for
today?"
   "Cooperative lifting with one or more other students," Tenel Ka
stated without hesitation.
   Jaina  clapped  her hands and rubbed them together,  scrambling
out of the cramped cockpit. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"
   The  process was much more difficult than they had anticipated,
but in the end they managed it. Lowie and Tenel Ka climbed up into
the  tree to clear away the moss and branches that held the  panel
in  place.  Tenel Ka secured it with the thin fibercord  from  her
belt,  while Lowbacca added sturdy vines to help support the heavy
slab. Jaina and Jacen watched from the lower branches of the tree,
craning their necks to see.
   "Everyone  ready?"  Jaina asked. "Okay- now  concentrate,"  she
said. She gave them a moment to observe the solar panel glittering
in  scattered  light  from  the sky. They  studied  the  piece  of
wreckage, grasping it with their thoughts.
   "Now," Jaina said.
   With  that,  four minds pushed upward, nudging.  In  a  gentle,
concerted motion they lifted the panel free of the branch where it
had  rested  for  decades. The large, flat  rectangle  wobbled  in
midair  for  a moment and then began to slowly descend.  Tenel  Ka
kept her fibercord taut, easing the Force-lightened object down.
   Together, they brought it to rest a few branches below where it
had been. Tenel Ka and Lowbacca untied the vines and the fibercord
from  the  higher branch, climbed down, and retied the strands  to
the branch on which the panel now rested.
   The process was not perfect. Mental coordination among the four
friends proved difficult, and they each lost their grip more  than
once. But the vines and fibercord held, preventing a disaster.
   By  the time the exhausted companions brought the panel to  the
jungle  floor and carried it to the crash site, all of  them  were
panting and perspiring from the mental exertion.
   Jaina sank down beside the TIE fighter with a weary groan.  She
flopped backward in the dirt and leaves, not caring for the moment
that her hair would become as disheveled and full of twigs as  her
brother's usually was.
   Lowie  tossed  them each a packet of food from  the  basket  of
supplies  they brought with them every day. Jaina's packet  landed
on her stomach., and she rolled onto her side with a mock growl of
indignation.  As she faced a hole in the side of  the  broken  TIE
fighter, a sudden thought occurred to her.
   "You  know,"  she said, chin in hands. "I'd be willing  to  bet
there's enough room in there to install a hyperdrive."
   "You  said that TIE fighters were short-range craft," Tenel  Ka
said.
   Lowie  responded with a contemplative sound as he thought  this
over. Jacen merely moaned at the mention of more work.
   "They  were  designed to be short-range,"  Jaina  said.  "Never
equipped  with  hyperdrives because the  Emperor  didn't  want  to
sacrifice the maneuverability."
   Jacen  snorted.  "Or maybe he didn't want any  of  his  fighter
pilots making a quick escape."
   Jaina  turned toward him and grinned. "I guess I never  thought
of it that way." Her face lit with enthusiasm as she looked at her
friends.  "But there's nothing to stop us from equipping this  TIE
fighter  with  a hyperdrive, is there? Dad gave me one  to  tinker
with."
   "It is a possibility," Tenel Ka said, without much enthusiasm.
   They  were all tired, Jaina knew. But her mind raced  with  the
excitement of this new thought. She made a quick decision.  "Okay,
let's  go  back  to the academy. I want to make some measurements.
We'll call it a day."
   Jacen  sighed  with  relief. "I think  that's  been  your  best
suggestion in hours."
   Back  again the next afternoon, Jacen lay flat on his  stomach,
his  chin  resting on one clenched fist as he surveyed  the  moist
ground  beneath a tangle of low, thick bushes. He  left  his  feet
sticking  out  from beneath the bushes so that  the  others  could
locate  him  easily  should they look up from their  work-  though
there  was  little chance of that. From behind him he  could  hear
thumping  and clinking as Jaina labored to install the hyper-drive
in the TIE fighter.
   A thick splat told him that Tenel Ka and Lowbacca were applying
sealant  over  the hole patch at the base of the reattached  solar
panel.  The others were all busy, leaving Jacen free to  hunt  for
"missing parts" again.
   He  watched, fascinated, as a leaf-shaped creature that matched
the blue-green color of the foliage around him attached itself  to
a  branch.  It extended a long mottled brown tongue that flattened
against  the twig in a perfect camouflage. Jacen could  sense  the
leaf  creature's  anticipation. Soon a crowd  of  minute  insects,
drawn  by  a smell Jacen could not discern, landed on the "branch"
and  became stuck fast. Jacen chuckled and shook his head  as  the
leaf creature retracted its tongue with an audible fwoookt.
   With nothing interesting to be seen on the ground, he gave  the
bush  a  small  shake  once  the leaf creature  departed.  He  was
rewarded with a hissing rustle as a dislodged object fell near his
elbow. He picked it up.
   It was an Imperial insignia.
   He turned the metallic object over in his hand, but then he saw
a  familiar  shimmer at the edge of his gaze, and  he  reflexively
grabbed for it. Jacen wriggled backward out of the bushes,  stood,
and bounded over to the TIE fighter.
   "Look  what  I  found!"  he  crowed. His  sister's  lower  half
protruded  at  an awkward angle from the cockpit,  while  she  was
apparently  attempting  to connect some  part  of  the  hyperdrive
behind the pilot's seat.
   Her muffled voice drifted out to him. "Just a moment. I need  a
flash heater."
   Tenel Ka passed a small tool in from the other side of the open
cockpit.  She and Lowbacca, wiping sealant from their hands,  came
around to see what Jacen had discovered.
   "A brooch of some sort?" Tenel Ka asked, examining it closely.
   Jacen shook his head. "An Imperial insignia. Came off a uniform
of some kind."
   "There," Jaina said, extracting herself from the cockpit of the
TIE fighter and jumping down beside them. "That should do it."
   Jacen  handed her the insignia, and she nodded absently.  "Look
what  else  I found," he said, holding up his left arm, which  was
wrapped in a glowing shimmer.
   Jaina  made a sound somewhere between a growl and a laugh,  and
backed away. "Great. Just what we need-another crystal snake  that
can get loose."
   Jacen  used a tactic he knew his sister couldn't resist.  "Oh,"
he  said,  letting  disappointment show. "It's  just  that  you've
always  been so good at designing things-I thought you could  come
up  with a cage that the snakes couldn't escape from. But  if  you
really don't think you can . . ."
   He saw Jaina's face light at the challenge, but then her brandy-
brown eyes narrowed shrewdly, and he knew that she had caught  on.
"That," she said, "is a dirty trick. You know I could-" She  shook
her  head,  sighed  in  mock exasperation, and  seemed  to  resign
herself  to the inevitable. "Oh, all right! I'll build you  a  new
cage for your crystal snakes-"
   "Thanks," a grinning Jacen cut her off before she could  change
her mind. "You're the best sister in the whole galaxy!"
   Jaina huffed indelicately. "But don't bring this new snake back
to your quarters until I have the cage ready."
   "Okay," Jacen said, "I'll keep it someplace safe-maybe  in  the
cargo compartment. Can I have the Imperial insignia back, please?"
Jaina  tossed  it to him, and he began to polish  it  against  the
sleeve of his jumpsuit. "I wonder if it belonged to the pilot."
   Lowbacca  looked at the crashed TIE fighter and  then  back  at
Jacen  and  rumbled a question. "Master Lowbacca  suggests  it  is
unlikely  that the pilot survived the crash, even if his fall  was
cushioned by the Massassi trees," Em Teedee said.
   Tenel  Ka  looked  around the site with  unblinking  eyes.  "No
bones."
   Jacen  shrugged.  "After twenty years, that's  not  surprising.
Lots of scavengers in the jungle. I've been assuming he was thrown
clear."
   Tenel   Ka's  cool  eyes  looked  troubled,  but  she   nodded.
"Perhaps."
   The  four worked in companionable silence as they attached  the
final  hole patch to the damaged hull. Then, while the other three
applied  the  slow-drying  sealant, Jacen  hunted  around  in  the
underbrush. He knew he shouldn't be out of sight for more  than  a
few  seconds, but he had already searched all of the  thickets  in
clear view of the crash site.
   Promising  himself that he wouldn't be gone long, Jacen  pushed
through  a particularly thick tangle of dense, dark-leaved  plants
and  emerged  into a small clearing no wider than his outstretched
arms.  The  dirt was completely devoid of plant life, as  if  some
animal  trampled it so often that vegetation no longer grew there.
It  extended deeper into the jungle-a path! It was narrow, but the
hard-packed trail was unmistakable.
   Forgetting  his  earlier promise to stay close,  Jacen  plunged
through  the bushes and followed the trail. The grove of  Massassi
trees  was  younger, their branches lower to the  ground.  Perhaps
that  was  why none of the companions had seen this path  from  up
above.
   The  jungle  grew  darker around him  as  he  trudged  on.  The
chitters,  growls,  and screeches of forest  animals  seemed  more
menacing.
   Just  as he began to realize that he was much too far away from
the others, he came upon a clearing beside a small stream.
   Some creature had built a dam across the stream, diverting some
of  the  water into a depression beside it to form a wide, shallow
pool.  Against the burn-hollowed trunk of a huge Massassi tree  at
the  water's  edge  leaned a number of long, fat branches  covered
with  moss and ferns to form a crude shelter- perhaps the lair  of
the creature whose path Jacen had been following.
   Jacen  reached out toward the little hovel with his  mind,  but
sensed nothing larger than insects living around it. Skirting  the
small  pond,  he  approached the low shelter, his  heart  pounding
loudly in his chest. He knew he should be more cautious. But  what
was this place?
   What  if the beast that lived here was a predator? What  if  it
returned as he was investigating?
   Jacen  jumped as he heard a loud crack- but it was only a  twig
snapping  under  his own foot. He bent forward to  look  into  the
branchy opening of the shelter, and gasped at what he saw there.
   Fully  a  third of the Massassi tree's trunk had been  hollowed
out to form a sturdy, dry cave, tall enough for a man to stand in.
A  makeshift wooden chair stood beside a low mound of leaves  that
might  have  been  a bed, partially covered by a ragged  piece  of
cloth. A cache of equipment, vines, fruits, and dried berries  lay
piled  against the back of the cave. Perched atop the pile  was  a
nightmarish black helmet with triangular eyeplates and a breathing
mask  connected to a pair of rubber hoses that Jacen  figured  had
once been linked with an air tank.
   An Imperial TIE fighter pilot's helmet.
   Jacen  stumbled  backward, away from the  shelter,  his  breath
coming  in  shallow gasps. He tripped and fell, and found  himself
inside a ring of low stones and ashes. A fire pit. He scooped away
some  of  the  dirt  that covered the pit  and  felt  around  with
trembling fingers. The ground was still warm.
   Jacen  jumped to his feet and raced toward the little trail  at
full speed. He ran along the narrow path, heedless of the branches
that  slapped  his face or the thorns that tore at  his  jumpsuit,
oblivious to the animals he startled from their hiding places.  He
didn't  slow  as  he  approached the bushes  that  surrounded  the
crashed TIE fighter.
   He  burst  into  the tiny clearing and ran  up  to  the  wreck,
yelling, "Jaina! Tenel Ka! Lowie! He's here. He's alive.  The  TIE
pilot isn't dead!"
   The three of them looked up in astonishment just as Jacen heard
a  rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to see a  haggard,
grizzled-looking man step through the bushes. The stranger's  face
was deeply lined, and he wore a tattered flight suit. His left arm
was  bent  at  an  awkward angle, and was wrapped  in  an  armored
gauntlet of black leather. But in his glove he held an ugly,  old-
model  blaster. And the weapon was leveled directly at  the  young
Jedi Knights.
   "Yes,"  said the Imperial fighter pilot. "I am very much alive.
And you are my prisoners."
   
   11
   
   When  the  Imperial TIE pilot turned his eyes from  her  for  a
split  second, Tenel Ka reacted with lightning speed, just as  she
had been taught by the warrior women on Dathomir.
   "Run!"  she shouted to the others, knowing exactly what to  do.
She turned and bolted for the nearest tangled undergrowth, dodging
expected blaster fire.
   Tenel Ka reacted so quickly and so smoothly that even her  most
rigid  battle trainers would have been proud of her. Their tactics
had been drilled into her:
   Confuse the enemy.
   Do the unexpected.
   Take your opponent by surprise.
   Don't waste time hesitating.
   Tenel  Ka tore through the tangled thorns and blueleaf  shrubs,
clawing with her hands to clear a path that closed behind  her  as
she  moved  through  the thicket. She gasped and  panted,  bolting
ahead,  ignoring  the scratches and stinging pain  of  the  thorns
against  her  bare arms and legs. The scaled armor  protected  her
vital parts, but her red-gold hair flew around her, snagging loose
leaves and twigs. Branches caught at her braids and yanked strands
of  her  hair out by the roots. She hissed with pain, but  clamped
her teeth together, plunging ahead.
   Why couldn't she hear the others running?
   "Get  help!"  It was Jacen shouting behind her,  still  in  the
clearing. Why didn't they run?
   Then an explosion of flames ripped into the underbrush just  to
her  left. The TIE pilot was firing his blaster at her! The  smell
of  singed leaves and burnt sap stung her nostrils. Tenel Ka  dove
to  the  ground,  rolled sideways, then ran at  full  speed  in  a
different  direction. If she gave up now, he would kill  her.  She
had no doubt of that-not anymore.
   Intent only on distancing herself from the TIE pilot, she fled,
changing  directions  at  random to confuse  the  enemy.  Branches
cracked  underfoot, and Tenel Ka paid no attention  whatsoever  to
where she ran... deeper into the densest jungle of Yavin 4.
   Lowbacca hesitated only a fraction of a second longer.
   Tenel  Ka seemed to evaporate as she shouted "Run!" and  ducked
into the thick forest.
   The  TIE  pilot whirled and pointed his blaster  at  the  place
where  Tenel Ka had disappeared, and Lowbacca used the instant  of
distraction.  The young Wookiee let out a bellow of  surprise  and
anger,  then instinctively surged up the ancient bole of the  near
est Massassi tree, climbing higher, up, where it was safe.
   He  grabbed  branches and vines, hauling himself up toward  the
thick,  spicy-smelling canopy. Behind him,  the  Imperial  fighter
began  shooting wildly. Explosions and bright flames from  burning
foliage  ballooned  out from where the blaster  bolts  struck  the
branches  under  Lowie's  feet. He smelled  the  ozone  of  energy
discharge, the steam of disintegrated vegetation.
   With  Wookiee  strength, Lowbacca climbed  higher  and  higher,
finally reaching thick, flat branches that allowed him to make his
way across the treetops toward where he had landed the T-23.
   He  had to get help. He had to rescue his friends. Tenel Ka had
gotten  to safety-or so he hoped-but Jacen and Jaina had not  been
able  to  react as quickly or move with such practiced  wilderness
skills.
   "Oh  my!"  Em Teedee wailed from the clip on his waist,  "Where
are  we  going? That person was trying to kill us! Can you imagine
that?"
   Lowie  continued to scramble across the thick branches,  loping
with  great agility, moving farther away from the still-firing  pi
lot.
   "Master  Lowbacca, answer me!" Em Teedee said, his tinny  voice
echoing from the speaker-patch. "You can't simply leave me hanging
here doing nothing at all, you know."
   Lowbacca grunted a reply and kept moving.
   "But  surely,  that's  beside the point," Em  Teedee  quibbled,
"since  I'm  doing  everything  I can.  Just  because  I  have  no
functional arms or legs doesn't mean I don't want to assist you."
   The  sounds of blaster fire from the clearing below had ceased,
and  Lowbacca  feared that meant Jacen and Jaina were  captured-or
worse.  His thoughts churned it in panic and turmoil. He  knew  he
had  to rescue them. But how? He had never done anything like this
before. He didn't think Tenel Ka could do it alone, so he  had  to
offer whatever help he could manage.
   The  branches  thinned  up  ahead,  spreading  out  around  the
clearing  where Lowbacca had settled the T-23. The small ship  sat
where  he  had  landed it, and he scrambled back  down  the  thick
branches,  clinging to vines until he reached ground level  again.
The T-23 was his best chance.
   Lowbacca  had been so proud of the small craft when  his  uncle
Chewie  had  given it to him, but now it seemed so small  and  bat
tered, all but useless against an armed Imperial pilot. He trudged
across  the  weed-covered ground over to the little skyhopper.  He
would have to use it to make the rescue. He had no better options.
   The low, simmering music of insects and jungle creatures filled
the air. He could hear no sound of blaster fire, no shouts of chal
lenge or pain. It was quiet. Too quiet. Lowbacca hurried.
   "Oh, excellent idea!" Em Teedee said as they approached the  T-
23.  "We're  going back to the Jedi academy to get reinforcements,
aren't we. That's by far the wisest thing to do, I'm sure."
   But  Lowie knew it would be too late for the twins by then.  He
had to do something now. He told Em Teedee what he intended to do,
and the miniature translating droid squawked in dismay.
   "But, Master Lowbacca! The T-23 has no weapons. How can you fly
it  against that Imperial pilot? He is a professional fighter- and
he's desperate!"
   Lowie   had  the  same  fears  as  he  powered  up  the  T-23's
repulsorlift  engines.  He  made  an  optimistic  comment  to  the
translating droid.
   "Tricks?  What  tricks do you have up your sleeve?"  Em  Teedee
said. "Besides, you don't even have sleeves."
   The craft sounded strong and powerful, thrumming and roaring in
the  jungle  stillness.  Lowie  smelled  the  acrid  exhaust,  and
snuffled.  His black pilot seat vibrated as the ship  prepared  to
take off.
   He  would need to do some fancy flying to get the craft through
the  trees to the crash site-but he had to save his friends, offer
whatever  help he could. Perhaps his noisy approach would  startle
the  TIE  pilot enough to make him flee for cover.  And  then  the
twins could jump aboard and make their escape.
   Lowbacca  nudged the throttles forward and lifted the T-23  off
its   resting   place  in  the  trampled  undergrowth.   The   ion
afterburners roared as the small ship arrowed through the  forest,
dodging   branches   and   hanging  moss,   heading   toward   his
friends-directly into the path of danger.
   Back  in the clearing, Jacen and Jaina froze for only a moment,
then  turned and ran, trying to escape-but the bulk of the almost-
repaired TIE fighter got in their way. Jaina grabbed Jacen's  arm,
and  the  two  of them ran together, frightened but  knowing  they
needed to move, move.
   The  Imperial pilot fired his blaster, shooting twice into  the
thicket  where Tenel Ka had vanished. Burning brush and splintered
twigs  flew into the air in a cloud. For an instant Jaina  thought
their  young  friend  from Dathomir had been killed-but  then  she
heard  more  leaves  rustling and branches snapping  as  Tenel  Ka
continued her desperate flight.
   The  TIE  pilot fired into the trees next, blasting  the  lower
branches-but  Lowbacca had gotten away. The twins ran  around  the
end  of  the wrecked fighter, and suddenly Jacen stumbled  over  a
rectangular box of hydrospanners, cyberfuses, and other tools they
had gathered for the repair of the crashed ship-and fell headlong.
   Jaina grabbed her brother's arm, trying to yank him to his feet
to  run  again. The ground screeched with an explosion of  blaster
fire. Three high-energy bolts ricocheted from the age-stained hull
of the crashed ship.
   Jaina  froze,  raising  her hands in surrender.  They  couldn't
possibly  hide  fast enough. Jacen climbed to his feet  and  stood
next  to his sister, brushing himself off. The TIE pilot took  two
steps  toward  them,  encased in battered  armor  and  wearing  an
expression of icy anger.
   "Don't move," he said, "or you will die, Rebel scum."
   His  black pilot armor was scuffed and worn from his long exile
in the jungles. The Imperial's crippled left arm was stiff like  a
droid's, encased in an armored gauntlet of black leather.  He  had
been  severely hurt, but it appeared to be an old injury that  had
long  ago  healed, though improperly. The pilot was a  hard-bitten
old warrior. His eyes were haunted as he stared at Jaina.
   "You  are my prisoners." He motioned with the old-model blaster
pistol that was gripped in his twisted, gloved hand.
   "Put  down the blaster," Jaina said quietly, soothingly,  using
everything she knew of Jedi persuasion techniques. "You don't need
it." Her uncle Luke had told them how Obi-Wan Kenobi had used Jedi
mind tricks to scramble the thoughts of weak-minded Imperials.
   "Put down the blaster," she said again in a rich, gentle voice.
   Jacen  knew  exactly what his sister was doing. "Put  down  the
blaster," he repeated.
   The  two  of  them  said  it  one  more  time  in  an  echoing,
overlapping voice. They tried to send peaceful thoughts,  soothing
thoughts  into the TIE pilot's mind... just as Jacen had  done  to
calm his crystal snake.
   The  TIE pilot shook his grizzled head and narrowed his haunted
eyes.  The  blaster wavered just a little, dropping  down  only  a
notch.
   Why  isn't it working? Jaina thought desperately. "Put down the
blaster,"  she  said  again,  more  insistently.  But  inside  the
Imperial  fighter's mind she ran up against a wall of thoughts  so
rigid, so black-and-white, so clear-cut, that it seemed like droid
programming.
   Suddenly  the  pilot straightened and glared  at  them  through
those bleak, haunted eyes. "Surrender is betrayal," he said,  like
a memorized lesson.
   Jacen, seeing their chance slipping away, reached out with  his
mind and yanked at the weapon with mental brute force.
   "Get the blaster!" he whispered. Jaina helped him tug with  the
Force,  reaching for the old weapon in the pilot's grip.  But  the
armored  glove  was wrapped so tightly around it  that  the  black
gauntlet  seemed fastened to the blaster handle. The  handgrip  of
the obsolete weapon caught on the glove, and the TIE pilot grabbed
it with his other hand, pointing the barrel directly at the twins.
   "Stop  with your Jedi tricks," he said coldly. "If you continue
to resist I will execute you both."
   Knowing  that  the  pilot needed only  to  depress  the  firing
stud-much  more  quickly  than they could  ever  mind-wrestle  the
blaster  away  from him-Jacen and Jaina let their  hands  fall  to
their sides, relaxing and ceasing their struggles.
   Just  then a buzzing, roaring sound crashed through the  canopy
above-a wound-up engine noise, growing louder.
   "It's Lowie!" Jacen cried.
   The  T-23  plunged through the branches overhead in a crackling
explosion  of  shattered twigs, plowing toward the crash  site  at
full speed, like a charging bantha.
   "What's  he  trying to do?" Jacen asked, quietly.  "He  doesn't
have any weapons on board!"
   "He might distract the pilot," Jaina said. "Give us a chance to
escape."
   But the armored Imperial soldier stood his ground at the center
of  the  clearing, spreading his legs for balance and  assuming  a
practiced  firing stance. He pointed his blaster at  the  oncoming
air speeder, unflinching.
   Jaina  knew  that  if  the  blaster  bolt  breached  the  small
repulsorlift  reactor,  the entire vehicle  would  explode-killing
Lowbacca, and perhaps all of them.
   Lowbacca brought the T-23 forward as if he meant to ram the TIE
pilot.  The desperate Imperial soldier aimed at the T-23's  engine
core and squeezed the firing stud.
   "No!"  Jaina  cried,  and nudged with  her  mind  at  the  last
instant.  Using  the  Force, she shoved the TIE  pilot's  arm  and
knocked  his  aim off by just a fraction of a degree.  The  bright
blaster bolt screeched out and danced along the metal hull of  the
repulsorlift pods. The engine casings melted at the side, spilling
coolant and fuel. Gray-blue smoke boiled up. The sound of the T-23
became stuttered and sick as its engines faltered.
   Lowie  pulled  up in the pilot's seat, swerving  to  keep  from
crashing  into the Massassi trees. He could barely fly  the  badly
damaged craft.
   "Go, Lowie!" Jacen whispered. "Get out while you can."
   "Eject! Before it blows!" Jaina cried.
   But  Lowbacca somehow managed to gain altitude, spinning around
the  huge trees and climbing toward the canopy again. His  engines
smoked, trailing a stream of foul-smelling exhaust that curled the
jungle leaves and turned them brown.
   "He  won't get far," the Imperial pilot said in a raw monotone.
"He is as good as dead."
   Although the T-23 was out of sight now, far above them  in  the
jungle  treetops,  Jaina  could still hear  the  engine  coughing,
failing,  and  then picking up again as the battered craft  limped
away.  The  sounds  carried  well  in  the  jungle  silence.   The
repulsorlift  engine faded in the distance, its  ion  afterburners
popping and sputtering-until finally, there was silence again.
   The  TIE  pilot, his expression still stony, gestured with  the
blaster pistol. "Come with me, prisoners. If you resist this time,
you will die."
   
   12
   
   Lowbacca wrestled with the T-23, trying to control its  erratic
flight as it lurched across the treetops.
   Thick,  knotted  smoke trailed in a stuttering plume  from  his
starboard  repulsor  engine. Lowie risked a quick  glance  to  his
right again to assess the damage. No flames, but the situation was
grim  enough.  The late-afternoon air currents were turbulent  and
threatened to capsize the skyhopper.
   The  T-23  jolted  and  dipped. Once, it bounced  against  some
upraised branches, which scraped like long fingernails against the
ship's lower foils and bottom hull, but Lowbacca managed to wrench
the  T-23  back on course. He was a good pilot; he would  make  it
back  to  the academy and bring help, no matter what it  took.  He
didn't know what had happened to Tenel Ka-if she was all right, or
if the TIE pilot had captured her by now as well. For all he knew,
Lowbacca was the only hope for rescue for his three friends.
   His  heart  pounded  painfully and  his  eyes  stung  from  the
chemical  smoke that leaked into the cockpit. He noticed  a  sour,
noxious smell, and his head began to swim.
   "Master  Lowbacca," Em Teedee said, "my sensors  indicate  that
significant quantities of fumes have entered the cockpit."
   Lowbacca gave a growl of annoyance. Did the little droid  think
that his sharp sense of smell hadn't picked that up?
   "Well, no," Em Teedee rushed on, "it may not be dangerous  yet,
but  if we begin to lose airspeed, less smoke will be drawn  away.
The  airborne  toxins could reach potentially  lethal  levels"-the
droid  raised  his  volume  slightly  for  emphasis-"even  for   a
Wookiee."
   The  speeder gave a shuddering jolt, scraping against  branches
again.  With grim determination Lowbacca pulled up. The  T-23  was
even harder to manage now. He wasn't sure how long he could last.
   But he had to make it. He couldn't leave his friends in danger.
   The  T-23  shuddered and dipped. Lowbacca wheezed, laboring  to
pull  air  into  his lungs. As if in response to his  effort,  the
starboard engine coughed and sputtered.
   And died.
   Using  all  of his piloting skills, Lowie fought to steady  the
craft in its wobbling descent. The thick, deceptively soft-looking
canopy rushed up at him, and the T-23 came to a crunching halt  in
a  blizzard  of  leaves and twigs. Like a wounded  avian,  it  lay
nestled  on  the  treetops, its right lower  wing  buried  in  the
foliage. The left engine still chugged, but smoke billowed up from
the damaged engine below, pouring into the cockpit now.
   Lowbacca's head reeled with the impact, but he knew he  had  to
get  out. He fumbled with his crash restraints, trying to unfasten
them.  His vision was blurred from the acrid smoke, and he  gagged
at the stench. Confusion made his fingers clumsy.
   Finally, with a burst of determination, he yanked on the straps
until,  loosened  by  the  crash,  they  tore  away.  Two  of  the
restraints  came  free in his hands, and he wriggled  out  of  the
remaining webbing.
   Still  no  flames, Lowbacca noted with relief as  he  scrambled
from the cockpit and distanced himself from the smoking T-23.  Low
bacca gasped in deep lungfuls of the fresh, humid air of Yavin  4.
As  he  worked his way across the treetops in the gathering  dusk,
one  knee  ached  from  where it had banged against  the  controls
during the crash.
   But  he  had  no  time to think about that.  His  first  rescue
attempt  might have failed, but he had not failed yet. There  were
always options. He had to get back to the academy.
   In  his  hurried scramble through the upper branches,  Lowbacca
did not notice when Em Teedee's clip broke at his waist.
   The tiny droid fell with a thin wail into the forest below.
   Dusk  deepened  into  the full darkness of  the  jungle  night.
Swarms  of  nocturnal  creatures awakened, beginning  to  hunt-but
still Lowbacca pressed on.
   Common  sense  had  forced  him to  travel  below  the  canopy,
descending  to  a  level  where all of  the  branches  were  of  a
sufficient  length and sturdiness to support him as he transferred
his  agile bulk from one tree to the next. Sometimes when he began
to  tire, or when his injured knee threatened to give way  beneath
him,  Lowbacca relied on his powerful arms instead, swinging  from
branch to branch, using bis keen Wookiee night vision in the murky
shadows.
   But he never stopped to rest. He could rest later.
   Right  now all of his senses were as finely tuned as a  medical
droid's  laser beam. The pads of his feet and his acute  sense  of
smell helped him to avoid decaying patches or slippery growths  on
the   tree  branches  as  he  walked.  His  sharp  hearing   could
distinguish between the sounds of wind through the leaves and  the
rustling  of nocturnal animals as they stalked the jungle heights.
For the most part, he managed to stay clear of them.
   Lowbacca  did not fear the darkness or the jungle. The  jungles
of  Kashyyyk held far greater dangers-and he had faced  those  and
survived.  He  remembered playing late-night games in  the  forest
with  his cousins and friends: races through the upper trees, jump
ing and swinging competitions, daring expeditions to the dangerous
lower regions to test each other's courage, and the usual rites of
passage that marked a Wookiee youth's transition into adulthood.
   As  he  pushed through a dense clump of growth, a twig  snagged
Lowie's webbed belt, and he yanked it free. The feel of the  intri
cately  braided strands beneath his fingers reminded  him  of  the
night when he had won his belt, of his dangerous rite of passage.
   He remembered...
   He  felt his heart race with excitement as he descended  toward
the jungle floor that night long ago. Lowie had been down that far
only  twice  before,  when  he had attended  the  rites  of  other
friends, as was customary; there was strength in numbers when they
sought  to harvest the long, silky strands from the center of  the
deadly syren plant.
   But  Lowbacca had chosen to go alone, preferring  to  meet  the
challenge  of the voracious syren plant using his own wits  rather
than borrowed muscles.
   The night on Kashyyyk had been cool and dank. The profusion  of
screeches, chirps, growls, and croaks had been overwhelming.  When
he'd  reached the lowest branches, Lowie had cinched the strap  of
his knapsack tighter and began his hunt.
   With  every  sense  fully alert, Lowbacca had moved  stealthily
from branch to branch until he caught the alluring scent of a wild
syren  plant.  With  sure instinct he'd followed  the  distinctive
odor,  feeling  a  mixture of anticipation  and  dread,  until  he
squatted on the branch directly above the plant. He leaned over to
study his stationary, but incredibly vicious, quarry.
   The  huge syren blossom consisted of two glossy oval petals  of
bright  yellow, seamed in the center and supported by  a  mottled,
bloody red stalk, twice as thick around as the sturdy tree limb on
which  Lowbacca sat. From the center of the open blossom spread  a
tuft of long white glossy fibers that emitted a broad spectrum  of
pheromones, scents to attract any unwary creature.
   The  beauty of the gigantic flower was intentionally deceptive,
for  any creature lured close enough to touch the sensitive  inner
flesh  of  the blossom would trigger the plant's  lethal reflexes,
and  the  petal  jaws would close over the victim  and  begin  its
digestive cycle.
   Alone,  Lowbacca intended to harvest the glittering strands  of
the  plant  from  the center of the flower-without  springing  the
trap.
   Traditionally, a few strong friends would hold the flower  open
while the young Wookiee scrambled to the treacherous center of the
blossom, harvested the lustrous strands of sweetly scented  fiber,
and  quickly made an escape. But even this assistance was no  guar
antee.  Occasionally  young  Wookiees  still  lost  limbs  as  the
carnivorous plant clamped down on a slow-moving arm or leg.
   Performing the task by himself, though, Lowie had needed to  be
extra careful. He had removed the knapsack from his hairy back and
extracted  its contents: a face mask, a sturdy rope, a thin  cord,
and  a collapsible vibroblade. He'd placed the mask over his  nose
and mouth to filter out the syren's seductive scents. He knew that
the  pheromones  could  produce an almost overpowering  desire  to
linger or to touch-and he could afford no mistakes.
   Working  quickly, enveloped by sinister night  sounds,  he  had
fashioned a short length of thin cord into a loose slipknot,  then
formed  a  loop to make a sort of seat for himself in the  sturdy,
longer  rope. Passing the free end of the long rope over a  branch
directly above the syren plant, he'd gathered up the slack in  one
hand, slid off the limb, and lowered himself with muscular arms.
   Lowie had positioned himself as close as he dared to the gently
undulating  petals of the hungry syren blossom,  an  arm's  length
from  the tantalizing tuft. He'd gripped the end of the long  rope
in  his  strong jaws to hold himself in place and free his  hands.
Then,  using  the loop of thin cord to lasso the tuft of  precious
fibers, he'd pulled himself close enough to slice them loose  with
his  vibroblade.  With a triumphant growl he'd  jerked  his  prize
toward himself, trapped the bundle against his body with one hairy
arm, and stuffed the fiber into his knapsack.
   In  his  excitement,  however, the rope had  slipped  from  his
teeth.  The trailing end uncoiled, dangled precariously, and  then
brushed one glossy petal of the deadly flower below. With a  surge
of gut-wrenching terror, Lowbacca had grabbed the tied end of rope
and  hauled himself upward as the syren's jaws snapped  shut.  The
petals  just grazed one foot as they closed with an ominous  slurp
and a backwash of wind.
   He  had  earned this fiber, Lowie thought, every strand of  it,
enough to make a special belt, which he always wore afterward.
   Exhaustion  sank its claws into every muscle as  Lowbacca  made
his  way from one Massassi tree to the next, hour after hour,  all
through the night.
   Distance  held no more meaning for him; he had to  get  to  the
Jedi  academy. He could hear nothing but his own ragged breathing.
His  injured leg wobbled unsteadily at each step. Fatigue  blurred
his  vision,  and  twigs  and leaves matted  his  fur.  He  pushed
forward, always forward, arm-leg, arm-leg, hand-foot, hand-foot-
   Lowie  looked around, confused and disoriented. He had  reached
for  the next branch, but there were no more branches. Raising his
head, he looked across the clearing-the landing clearing!-and  saw
the  Great  Temple,  its majestic tiers outlined  in  the  predawn
darkness by flickering torches.
   Lowbacca  never remembered afterward climbing down out  of  the
tree  or  crossing the clearing. He noticed only the awesome,  wel
coming sight of the ancient stone pyramid as he bellowed an alarm.
He  roared again and again, until a stream of robed figures  carry
ing  fresh  torches rushed out of the temple and  down  the  steps
toward him.
   The  night  and the desperate journey had taken their  toll  on
Lowie. The numbness imposed by his own determination had worn off,
and  his knee refused to hold him any longer. His gangly legs gave
way, and he collapsed to the ground, moaning his message.
   When  he  rolled  onto his back, a circle  of  concerned  faces
filled his vision. Tionne bent over him and brushed the tangle  of
matted fur away from his eyes.
   "Lowbacca,  we  were concerned for you!" Tionne  said  gravely.
"Are you hurt?"
   Lowie  groaned an answer, but Tionne didn't seem to understand.
She  leaned closer to him, her silvery hair glowing in  the  torch
light.
   "Were Jacen and Jaina with you? And Tenel Ka?" She paused as he
tried  to  moan  another  answer.  "Did  something  happen?"   she
persisted. "Can you tell me where they are?"
   Lowbacca  finally managed to say that the others  were  in  the
jungle  and  needed help. Tionne's brows knitted  together  in  an
expression  of worry. She blinked her mother-of-pearl  eyes.  "I'm
sorry, Lowbacca. I can't understand a word you're saying."
   Lowie  reached  toward his belt to activate  Em  Teedee-but  he
found nothing. The translator droid was gone.
   
   13
   
   Tenel  Ka  ran  through the cool near-darkness  of  the  jungle
floor,  trying to come up with a plan. She held her bent  arms  in
front  of  her to protect her eyes and to push obstacles from  her
path.  Branches  whipped her face, tore at her  hair,  and  clawed
mercilessly at her bare arms and legs.
   Her breath came in sharp gasps, not so much from the effort  of
running-to  which she was well accustomed-but from the  terror  of
what  she  had just experienced. She hoped she had made the  right
decision.  Her  pulse  pounded in her  ears,  competing  with  the
symphony   of  alien  noises  as  the  jungle  creatures  welcomed
nightfall.  Though  she searched her mind, no  Jedi  calming  tech
niques would come to her.
   When  the  loud  squawk  of flying creatures  sounded  directly
behind her, Tenel Ka glanced back in alarm. Before she could  turn
again,  she  fetched up sharply against the trunk  of  a  Massassi
tree.  Stunned, she fell back a few paces and sank to the  ground,
putting one hand to the side of her face to examine her injury.
   No  blood,  she  thought  as if from a  great  distance.  Good.
Beneath her fingertips, she felt tenderness and swelling from  her
cheek  to  her  temple.  There would be bruises,  of  course,  and
perhaps  a  royal  headache. She cringed at  the  thought.  Royal.
Although  no one could see it, her cheeks heated with a  flush  of
humiliation.
   Tenel  Ka  pulled  herself to her feet and took  stock  of  her
situation.  In her newfound calmness she admitted to herself  that
she  was completely lost. Jacen and Jaina-and by now perhaps  even
Lowbacca-were counting on her to return with help. She had  always
prided  herself  on  being strong, loyal,  reliable,  unswayed  by
emotion.  She  had  been  levelheaded enough  during  her  initial
escape, but then she had panicked. She shook off thoughts  of  her
stupid headlong flight.
   Well, she thought, pressing her pale lips together into a  firm
line,  I am back in control now. She decided to push on until  she
found  a  safer place to spend the night. When morning  came,  she
would  try  to  get  her bearings again and  return  to  the  Jedi
academy.
   As she trudged along, searching in the fading light of day, the
ground  began  to  rise  and become more  rocky.  The  trees  grew
sparser.  When  she saw a jagged shadow loom out of  the  darkness
ahead  of her, she slowed. Ahead was a large outcropping of rough,
black stone, long-cooled lava mottled with lichens.
   Tenel Ka tilted her head back and looked up, but she could  not
see  how high the rock went; the jungle dimness swallowed  it  up.
Cautiously exploring sideways, she encountered a break in the rock
face,  a patch of deeper darkness-a small cave. Perhaps she  could
spend  the  night here, in this defensible, sheltered  place.  The
opening was no wider than the length of one arm and extended  only
to  shoulder height, forcing her to stoop to explore further.  She
needed only to find a comfortable, safe place to rest.
   She  shivered as she hunched down on the sandy, cool  floor  of
the  cave.  Her every muscle ached, but for now nothing  could  be
done about her pain; she could bear it as well as any warrior. But
she  had  not  eaten since midday. She felt in the  pouch  at  her
waist,  finding one carbo-protein biscuit remaining.  As  for  the
cold,  she  could light a fire with the finger-sized flash  heater
she carried in another pouch on her belt.
   Dropping to her hands and knees, she scrabbled along the ground
near the mouth of the cave, searching for twigs, leaves, any-thing
that would burn. Back on Dathomir she'd had plenty of practice  in
rugged camping and outdoor endurance.
   As  she thought of the cozy warmth of a fire and a soft bed  of
leaves,  Tenel  Ka's spirits rose. The nightmarish events  of  the
afternoon began to settle into perspective. This was an adventure,
she assured herself. A test of her will and determination.
   When  she  had  collected kindling and some  thicker  branches,
Tenel  Ka  began to build her fire against the velvety shadows  of
gathering  night. She fumbled in her belt pouches  for  her  flash
heater  and  groaned as she remembered that Jaina had borrowed  it
that  afternoon. She rubbed her cold, bare arms and  blew  on  her
hands to warm them.
   Tenel  Ka thought longingly of the cheery warmth of a crackling
fire,  of drinking hot, spiced Hapan ale with her parents. A  rare
smile  crossed her lips as she thought of them, Teneniel  Djo  and
Prince Isolder. If she were at home, she would only have to lift a
hand to bring a servant of the Royal House of Hapes running to  do
her bidding. . . .
   Tenel  Ka  grimaced. She had never known poverty  or  hardship,
except by choice. Well, you chose this, Princess, she reminded her
self savagely. You wanted to learn to do things for yourself.
   Her  father,  Isolder of Hapes, had always said  that  the  two
years he spent in disguise working as a privateer had done more to
prepare  him for leadership than any training the royal tutors  of
Hapes  could  provide.  And her mother, raised  on  the  primitive
planet  of Dathomir, was proud that her only daughter spent months
each  year  learning  the ways of the Singing  Mountain  Clan  and
dressing  as a warrior woman-a practice that Tenel Ka had  enjoyed
all the more because it annoyed her scheming Hapan grandmother.
   Teneniel  Djo had been even more pleased when her daughter  had
decided  to  attend the academy and take instruction to  become  a
Jedi. She had enrolled simply as Tenel Ka of Dathomir, not wanting
the  other trainees to treat her differently because of her  royal
upbringing.
   At the academy, only Master Skywalker- who was an old friend of
her  mother's,  and  the man Teneniel Djo most admired-knew  Tenel
Ka's  true background. She had not even told Jacen and Jaina,  her
closest friends on Yavin 4.
   Jacen  and Jaina. The twins trusted her. They needed  her  help
now.  She shivered in the cave. She had to stay safe for the night
and  then  get  back  to  the academy  in  the  morning  to  bring
reinforcements.
   Tenel  Ka heard a faint rustling, slapping, and hissing in  the
darkness  behind her. She looked back into the undulating shadows,
blinking to clear her eyes. Had the shadows really moved?  Perhaps
she had been foolish to spend the night in an unexplored cave, but
cold and fatigue had overruled her natural caution. She looked  up
and  thought she could discern glossy dark shapes clinging to  the
ceiling, moving like waves on an inverted black sea.
   Don't  be a child, she chided herself. She had always tried  to
show  her friends how self-sufficient and reliable she was.  Right
now, she was cold and bruised and miserable. What would Jacen  say
if he could see her? He'd probably tell some dumb joke.
   Tenel Ka gritted her teeth. She would just have to build a fire
without  the  flash heater, using skills she had  been  taught  on
Dathomir.
   It took an agonizingly long time for her strong arms to produce
enough  friction twirling one smooth stick of wood against a  flat
branch. Finally, she managed to coax forth a glowing ember  and  a
tendril of smoke. Working quickly, she touched a dried leaf to  it
and  blew.  A tiny golden flame licked its way up the  leaf.  With
mounting excitement she added another and then another, and then a
few twigs.
   A  gust  of wind threatened to extinguish the struggling flame,
so  she encircled her fire with a tiny earthen berm to protect it.
She  added  more  tinder, and soon the snapping  blaze  was  large
enough to warm her and cast a comforting circle of light.
   Tenel  Ka  soon realized that the restless sounds of scratching
and stirring she had heard earlier had grown louder-much louder.
   Suddenly,  a  shrieking  reptilian  form  plummeted  from   the
ceiling,  its  leathery wings outstretched. Twin serpentine  heads
snapped   and   a   scorpion   tail  lashed,   razor-sharp   claws
outstretched. Tenel Ka raised an arm to protect her  face  as  the
thing  drove directly at her. Talons raked her arm as  she  pushed
herself backward toward the cave wall. Sharp fangs opened  a  gash
in  her  bare leg, and she kicked fiercely, striking  one  of  the
creature's two heads with her scaled boot. In the flickering light
from  the tiny fire, Tenel Ka watched in horror as an entire flock
of  the hideous creatures-each with a wingspan wider than she  was
tall-dropped  from the shadowy recesses of the  cave  and  swarmed
toward her.
   She  struggled for purchase on the sandy cave floor and  pushed
her feet against the stone wall. Tenel Ka propelled herself toward
the mouth of the cave on her hands and knees.
   She kicked the embers of her fire at the flapping beasts as she
scrambled past, hardly noticing the bits of charred wood leaf that
singed  her  own legs. One of the reptilian creatures shrieked  in
pain.
   Tenel  Ka  smiled  with grim satisfaction and launched  herself
through the cave opening, back out into the pitch blackness of the
jungle night.
   The monsters followed.
   
   14
   
   At  gunpoint,  the  TIE  pilot led his  captives  back  to  the
clearing with the small, crude shelter where he had lived for some
time.
   "So  this  is why you came running," Jaina said to her brother.
"You found where he lives." Jacen nodded.
   "Silence!" the Imperial soldier said in a brusque voice.
   Jaina,  her  throat tight and dry, swallowed  hard  and  looked
around  at  the  small,  cleared site  in  the  gathering  evening
shadows.  Beside them a shallow stream trickled past. She couldn't
imagine  how  the  TIE pilot had survived all alone,  without  any
human contact, for so many years.
   The  climate  of Yavin 4 was warm and hospitable,  placing  few
demands on the home the TIE pilot had created for himself. He  had
carved out a large shelter from the bole of a half-burned Massassi
tree, in front of which he had lashed a lean-to of split branches.
Altogether,  it  provided him with a simple but comfortable  room,
like  a living cave. Jaina tried to imagine how long it had  taken
the Imperial, scraping with a sharp implement-possibly a piece  of
wreckage from his crashed ship-to widen the area under the gnarled
overhang.
   The  TIE pilot had rigged a system of plumbing made from hollow
reeds  joined together, drawing water from the nearby stream  into
catch basins inside his hut. He had made rough utensils from wood,
forest gourds, and petrified fungus slabs. The man "had maintained
a lonely existence, unchallenged, simply surviving and waiting for
further  orders, hoping someone would come to retrieve him-but  no
one ever had.
   The  Imperial soldier stopped outside the hut. "On the ground,"
he said. "Both of you. Hands above your heads."
   Jaina  looked at Jacen as they lay belly-down on the ground  of
the  clearing. She could think of no way to escape. The TIE  pilot
went to the thick foliage and rummaged among the branches with his
good hand. He wrapped his fingers around some thin, purplish vines
that dangled from dazzlingly bright Nebula orchids in the branches
above his head. With a jerk he snapped the strands free.
   The  vine tendrils flopped and writhed in his grip as  if  they
were  alive and trying to squirm away. The TIE pilot rapidly  used
them  to  lash Jaina's wrists together, then Jacen's. As the  deep
violet  sap leaked from the broken ends of the vines, the  plant's
thrashing  slowed,  and  the flexible, rubbery  vines  contracted,
tightening into knots that were impossible to break.
   Jacen  and Jaina looked at each other, their liquid-brown  eyes
meeting  as a host of thoughts gleamed unspoken between them.  But
they said nothing, afraid to anger their captor.
   Marching  clumsily through the humid jungle had made  them  hot
and  sticky,  and  Jaina was still covered  with  grime  from  her
repairs  on the TIE fighters engines. Now the cool jungle  evening
chilled  her  perspiration and made her shiver. Her hands  tingled
and  throbbed, as the tight vines cutting into her wrists made her
even more miserable.
   In the hour or so since their capture, neither of the twins had
heard any further sign of Lowie or Tenel Ka. Jaina was afraid that
something had happened to them, that her two friends were even now
stranded  and lost somewhere in the jungle. But then she  realized
that  her  own  situation was probably a lot more  dangerous  than
theirs.
   Without  a word, the TIE pilot nudged them to their feet,  then
over  to  the large lava-rock boulders near the fire pit  he  used
outside his shelter. They squatted there together The stone chairs
had  been  polished smooth, their sharp edges chipped away  slowly
and patiently over the course of years by the lost Imperial.
   The  last  coppery rays of light from huge orange planet  Yavin
disappeared, as the rapidly rotating moon covered the jungle  with
night. Through the densely laced treetops, thick shadows gathered,
making the forest floor darker than the deepest night on Jacen and
Jaina's glittering home planet of Coruscant.
   The Imperial pilot walked over to the splintered chunks of dry,
moss-covered  wood he had painstakingly gathered,  one-armed,  and
stacked  near  his shelter. He carried them back and  dropped  one
branch at a time into the fire pit, stacking the wood in formation
to make a small campfire.
   The pilot withdrew a battered igniter from a storage bin inside
his  shelter and pointed it at the campfire. Its charge  had  been
nearly  depleted, and the silvery nozzle showered only a  few  hot
sparks  onto  the  kindling;  but he  seemed  accustomed  to  such
difficulties.   He  toiled  in  silence,  never   cursing,   never
complaining,  simply focused on the task of getting  the  campfire
lit. And when he succeeded, he showed no satisfaction, no joy.
   With the fire finally blazing, the TIE pilot ducked back inside
his  hut,  rummaged in a vine-woven basket, and  returned  with  a
large  spherical fruit. The fruit was encased in  an  ugly,  warty
brown rind. Jama did not recognize it. It was nothing they ate  at
the Jedi academy.
   Holding  it in his injured, gauntleted hand, the pilot  used  a
sharpened stone to split open the rind, then peeled the fruit with
his  fingers. The flesh inside was pale yellowish-green,  speckled
with  scarlet. He broke the fruit into sections, shuffled over  to
the  two captives, and pushed one of the fruit sections in Jaina's
face. "Eat."
   She  clamped  her lips together for a moment, afraid  that  the
Imperial  soldier might be trying to poison her. Then she realized
that  the  TIE  pilot  could have killed either  of  them  at  any
time-and that she was extremely hungry and thirsty.
   Her  hands  still bound by the drying vine, she leaned  forward
and  opened her mouth to bite into the bright fruit. The explosion
of  tart citrus-tasting juice proved surprisingly invigorating and
delicious. She chewed slowly, savoring the taste, and swallowed.
   Jacen  also ate his. They nodded their thanks to the TIE pilot,
who fixed them with a stony gaze.
   Sensing an opening, Jacen asked, "What are you going to do with
us,  sir?" He tried to rub his chin against his shoulder  to  wipe
off the juice dribbling from his lips.
   The  TIE  pilot  stared unnervingly at him for several  moments
before he turned his face toward the bushes. "Not yet determined."
   Jaina's  chest  muscles constricted. All of this  had  been  an
accident,  a  mistake. From the thick bushes, the  TIE  pilot  had
probably  watched them tinker with his ruined ship for  days.  But
Jacen's  accidental discovery of his primitive shelter had  forced
him to react.
   What could the Imperial soldier do with them? He didn't seem to
have many options.
   "What's your name?" Jaina asked.
   The  TIE  pilot snapped upright and looked down  at  the  black
leather  glove  covering his twisted arm. He turned slowly  toward
her,  like  a  droid  with worn-out servomotors.  "CE3K-1977."  He
rattled off the numbers as if he had memorized them. Service  rank
and operating number only.
   "Not your number," Jaina persisted. "Your name. I'm Jaina. This
is my brother Jacen."
   "CE3K-1977," the TIE pilot said again, without emotion.
   "Your name?" Jaina asked a third time.
   Finally  her question seemed to perplex him. He looked  at  the
ground,  looked  at  his tattered uniform. His  mouth  opened  and
closed  several  times, but no sound came ou.t, until  finally  he
said in a croaking voice, "Qorl . . . Qorl. My name was Qorl."
   "We're staying at the academy in the old temples," Jacen  said,
wearing  a small grin- the kind that always disarmed their  mother
when  she was angry at him. But it didn't seem to be working  with
the TIE pilot.
   "Rebel base," Qorl said.
   "No,  it's  a  school  now," Jaina said. "Everyone's  there  to
learn.  It's  not a base any longer. It hasn't been a base  for...
twenty years or so."
   "It  is  a  Rebel base," Qorl insisted with such finality  that
Jaina decided not to pursue the subject any further.
   "How did you get here?" she asked, leaning closer on the smooth
rock. The campfire crackled between them. "How long have you lived
in  the jungle?" The tight vines constricting her circulation made
her  hands  numb.  She flexed her fingers as she bent  toward  the
fire. The smoke smelled rich and sweet from the fresh jungle wood.
   The  TIE  pilot  blinked  his pale eyes  and  stared  into  the
crackling flames. He looked as if he had been transported back  in
time and was watching a newsloop of his own buried memories.
   "Death Star," Qorl said. "I was on the Death Star. We came here
to  destroy  the  Rebel  base  after Grand  Moff  Tarkin  blew  up
Alderaan. This was our next target."
   Jaina  felt a pang as she remembered her mother talking of  the
lovely  grass-covered planet Alderaan, the peaceful windsongs  and
tall towers rising above the plains. Princess Leia's home had been
the  heart of galactic culture and civilization-until it was wiped
out in a single blow by the incredible cruelty of the Empire.
   "We  must  obliterate the Rebels at all costs," Qorl continued.
"Rebels cause damage to the Empire."
   He  recited  a  litany of what seemed to be memorized  phrases,
thoughts  that  had been brainwashed into him. "The Emperor's  New
Order will save the galaxy. The Rebels want to destroy that dream,
and  so  we must eradicate the Rebels. They are a cancer to  peace
and stability."
   "You  were on the Death Star," Jacen prompted. "That  was  over
twenty years ago. What happened?"
   Qorl  continued  to  stare deeply into the fire.  His  scratchy
voice  was  barely more than a whisper. "The Rebels knew  we  were
coming.  They fought. They sent their defenses against the  battle
station. All TIE squadrons were launched.
   "I flew with my squadron. All my companions were destroyed by X-
wing  defensive fire. I was damaged in the cross fire... one solar
panel  out of commission. I spun away from the Death Star, out  of
control.
   "I needed to get back to effect repairs. All comm channels were
jammed,  filled with dozens of requests for assistance.  My  orbit
was  decaying, and I spun toward the fourth moon of Yavin. I  kept
trying  to  hail someone on the comm channels. When I finally  got
through,  I  was  told  I  would have to  wait  for  rescue.  They
instructed me to make a good landing if I could-and to wait."
   "So you crashed," Jaina said.
   "The  jungle  cushioned my fall. I was thrown out of  my  craft
into  the  dense brush... when one of the solar panels caught  and
lodged in the trees above. I limped over to my TIE fighter. Stayed
as  close  as I dared, afraid that it might explode. My  arm-"  He
held  up  his  left  arm  in  the black leather  gauntlet.  "Badly
injured, ligaments torn, bones broken.
   "I  looked  up into the sky just in time to see the Death  Star
blow  up.  It was like another sun in the sky. Flaming  chunks  of
debris fell through the air. It must have started dozens of forest
fires.  For  weeks,  meteor showers were  like  fireworks  as  the
wreckage rained down onto the moon.
   "And I stayed here."
   The  firelight  bathed  Qorl's face with a  dancing,  yellowish
glow.  The jungle sounds burred in a hypnotic hum all around them.
The  TIE pilot gave no sign that he realized his two captives were
listening. Only his lips moved as he continued his tale.
   "I have waited here, and waited, as ordered. No one has come to
rescue me."
   "But,"  Jaina  said,  "all those years!  This  place  has  been
abandoned  for quite some time, but people have been at  the  Jedi
academy for eleven years now. Why haven't you turned yourself  in?
Don't  you  realize  what's  happened  in  the  galaxy  since  you
crashed?"
   "Surrender is betrayal!" Qorl snapped, glaring at her as  anger
flickered across his weathered face.
   "But  we're not lying," Jacen said. "The war is over. There  is
no  more  Empire." He took a deep breath and then  plunged  ahead.
"Darth  Vader  is dead. The Emperor is dead. The New Republic  now
rules.  Only  a  few remnants of old Imperial holdouts  are  still
buried in the Core Systems at the center of the galaxy."
   "I don't believe you," Qorl said flatly.
   "If  you take us back to the Jedi academy we can prove  it.  We
can  show  you everything," Jaina said. "Wouldn't you like  to  go
home?  Wouldn't you like to be free of this place?  We  could  get
your arm treated."
   Qorl  held up his glove and stared at it. "I used my medi-kit,"
he said. "I tended it as best I could. It is good enough, although
there was much pain . . . for a long time."
   "But  we've  got Jedi healers!" Jaina said. "We've got  medical
droids.  You could be happy again. Why stay here? There's  nothing
to betray: there is no more Empire."
   "Be  quiet,"  Qorl  said. "The Empire  will  always  rule.  The
Emperor is invincible."
   "The Emperor is dead," Jacen said.
   "The Empire itself can never die," Qorl insisted.
   "But  if you won't let us take you back to get help, then  what
do you want?" Jaina asked.
   Jacen nodded, chiming in. "What are you trying to accomplish?"
   "What can we do for you, Qorl?"
   The  TIE pilot turned away from the campfire to stare at  them.
His  haggard,  weather-beaten face held new power  and  obsession,
springing from deep within his mind.
   "You  will  finish repairs to my ship," he said.  "And  then  I
shall fly away from this prison moon. Ill return to the Empire  as
a  glorious  hero  of  war. Surrender is  betrayal-  and  I  never
surrendered."
   "And  what  if  we  won't help you?" Jacen said  with  all  the
bravado he could manage.
   Jaina instantly wanted to kick him for provoking the TIE pilot.
   Qorl  looked  at  the young boy, his face coldly expressionless
again. "Then you are expendable," he said.
   
   15
   
   It  took  Em Teedee several moments to recalibrate his  sensors
after  he dropped from Lowbacca's fiber-belt. He had fallen, bounc
ing,  crashing,  and bonking through the canopy until  he  finally
came to rest on a dense mat of leafy vines that tied together  the
lower branches.
   "Master  Lowbacca,  come back!" he said, amplifying  his  voice
circuits  to  their maximum volume levels. "Don't  leave  me!  Oh,
dear. I knew that was a bad idea."
   He  adjusted his optical sensors so he could see better in  the
dim  light of the lower levels. He was surrounded by thickets that
were  nearly  inaccessible to anyone as  large  as  even  a  young
Wookiee.
   "Help!  Help me!" Em Teedee shouted again. He decided it  would
be  most  effective to continue shouting every forty-five seconds,
because  he  calculated  that  was  the  minimum  amount  of  time
necessary for anyone nearby to come within earshot.
   Unable  to  move and scout out his location, Em  Teedee's  best
guess  was  that he was still twenty meters above the  ground.  He
hoped  that no slight jarring of the branches would cause  him  to
break  free  and  tumble down again. If he fell that  far  to  the
ground,  he  might strike one of the rough lava outcrop-pings  and
split open his outer casing. With his circuits spilled across  the
jungle  floor, no one would ever be able to put him back  together
again in the proper fashion. His circuits buzzed at the thought.
   Forty-five  seconds had passed. He called out again  for  help,
then  waited. He shouted repeatedly for the next hour  and  eleven
minutes,  hoping  desperately to attract some sort  of  attention,
someone to come rescue him.
   But  when  he  finally did attract a curious  investigator,  Em
Teedee wished he had kept his vocal circuits switched off.
   A  large  pack of chattering woolamanders scurried through  the
lower  canopy,  stirring  up leaves and cracking  twigs  in  their
hectic  passage. The arboreal creatures were loud and agile,  able
to clamber from thin branches to thick ones and back again without
losing  their balance. They seemed to be engaged in a  contest  to
see  who  could yowl and chatter the loudest in the jungle silence
as twilight deepened.
   Somehow,  over all the ruckus, they managed to hear Em Teedee's
cries for help.
   Em  Teedee  knew  from his limited database  of  Yavin  4  that
woolamanders  were curious, social creatures. Now  that  they  had
heard  him,  they  began to search. In only  moments,  with  their
sharp,  slit-eyed vision, they had spotted the translator  droid's
shiny  outer  casing in the jungle shadows. The pack of  colorful,
hairy creatures swarmed toward him.
   "Oh,  no,"  Em Teedee cried. "Not you. Please-I was hoping  for
someone else to rescue me."
   The  woolamanders  came  closer,  rattling  branches,  rustling
leaves.  Their  bright  purple  fur bristled  with  suspicion  and
delight.
   "Go away! Shoo!" Em Teedee said.
   The woolamanders let out a loud, shrieking celebration of their
discovery. A large male snatched Em Teedee from his resting  place
in the vines.
   "Put me down," Em Teedee said. "I insist that you let go of  me
at once."
   The  large  male tossed Em Teedee to his mate, who  caught  the
translator  droid and turned him over and around,  poking  at  the
shiny  circles. She dug her grimy finger into the gold  circle  of
his optical sensors.
   "That's  my  eye-get your finger away from it! Now  I'm  upside
down. Straighten me out . . . put me down!"
   The  female shook and rattled him to see if he would make other
noises.  When she went to a thick branch and made ready  to  smash
him  down on it, as she would crack open a large fruit, Em  Teedee
set off his automatic alarm sirens, shrieking and whooping at such
volume and at such a painful pitch that the female dropped him. He
bounced on another leafy branch, then came precariously to rest.
   "Help!" Em Teedee wailed.
   One  of  the smaller woolamanders rushed in to snatch him  from
his  resting  place. With loud chattering and squeals of  delight,
the young woolamander dashed along the lower branches, holding his
prize  high  as  Em Teedee continued to howl for  assistance.  The
other young woolamanders chased after the youngster, clamoring for
the prize.
   Em  Teedee,  in such a panic that he could no longer  stand  it
without overloading his circuits, shut down so he wouldn't have to
see what was about to happen to him.
   Sometime  late in. the night he powered back on again  to  find
that  he could see nothing: his optical sensors were covered  with
thick fur.
   He  detected  a gentle motion... breathing, snoring.  Then  the
young  woolamander stirred in its sleep. It shifted,  allowing  Em
Teedee to discover that the small creature now lay sleeping in the
crotch  of a tree branch, contentedly hugging his new toy  to  his
fur-covered chest.
   Around  them,  the other family members of the  large  arboreal
group  sighed and dozed, resting peacefully. Em Teedee had  an  im
pulse  to cry out again for help, still hoping that someone  might
come to rescue him.
   All the noisy woolamanders were finally asleep, though, and  Em
Teedee  decided to treasure this moment of peace.  He  could  only
hope for something better to happen the next day.
   
   16
   
   Dawn came fast and hot, as the distant white sun climbed around
the  fuzzy ball of Yavin. Jungle creatures awoke and stirred.  The
air warmed rapidly, thick with humidity that rose from low hollows
where mist had collected in the night.
   Jacen  and  Jaina had slept awkwardly, their hands  still  tied
with  the  resilient purple vines. Jacen fervently wished  he  had
spent  more  time practicing delicate and precise Force exercises.
He  didn't  have the skill or the accuracy to nudge and untie  the
thin knotted vines with his mind.
   As  soon  as there was light enough to work, Qorl emerged  from
his tree shelter and shook the twins awake. He gave them each sips
of  cool water from a gourd he dipped in the stream, then  used  a
long stone knife to saw off the vines binding their wrists.
   Jacen  flexed his fingers and shook out his hands.  His  nerves
tingled and stung with returning circulation.
   The Imperial soldier pointed the blaster at them, gesturing for
the twins to move. "Back to the TIE fighter," he ordered. "Work"
   Jacen  and Jaina trudged through the jungle, stumbling  through
vines  and  shrubs; the TIE pilot followed directly  behind  them.
They  reached the site of the crashed ship, where it lay uncovered
and  glinting in the early morning light. With a knot  forming  in
his stomach, Jacen saw burned patches from where Qorl had shot his
blaster at Tenel Ka and Lowie.
   "I  know  you are nearly finished with repairs," the TIE  pilot
said.  "I have been watching you for days. You will complete  them
today."
   Jaina  blinked her brandy-brown eyes and scowled  at  him.  "We
can't possibly work that fast, especially with just the two of us.
This  ship has been crashed for twenty years. We haven't  finished
cleaning   the  debris  from  the  sublight  intakes.  The   power
converters all need to be rewired."
   Jacen watched his sister and knew she was lying.
   "Cyberfuses  still need to be installed," she  continued.  "The
air-exchange system is clogged; it needs to be-"
   Qorl  raised the blaster, but did not alter the emotion in  his
voice. "Today," he repeated. "You will finish today."
   "Oh,  blaster  bolts!  I  think  he  means  it,  Jaina,"  Jacen
muttered. "Show me what I can do to help."
   Jaina  sighed. "All right. Collect the box of tools you tripped
over  yesterday.  Get the hydrospanner. I'll use my  multitool  to
finish some calibrations here in the engines."
   Qorl  sat down on a lumpy, lichen-encrusted boulder, using  his
good  hand  to brush crawling insects from his legs. The  Imperial
soldier  waited  like  a droid sentinel, unmoving,  watching  them
work. Jacen tried to ignore him-and the blaster.
   Gnats and biting insects swarmed around Jacen's face, attracted
by  the  sweat in his tangled hair. He passed tools to his sister,
trying  to find the components and equipment Jaina needed  as  she
crawled and rummaged in the TIE fighter's engine compartment.
   He  could  sense  Jaina's growing anger  and  frustration.  She
couldn't  think of a plan. Yes, Jacen supposed, they could  simply
sabotage the ship repairs-but Qorl would realize what they'd  done
almost immediately, and he would get even with them. They couldn't
risk that.
   Now Jacen wished that his sister, in all her excitement, hadn't
installed  the  new hyperdrive unit their dad had  given  her.  He
wished that they all hadn't worked so hard, made so much progress.
Now it was almost too late.
   Jacen  brushed a hand across his forehead, blinking sweat away.
His stomach growled. He turned to the TIE pilot, sitting nearby on
the  rock, still pointing the blaster barrel directly at him.  The
threat was getting tiresome.
   "Qorl," he said, intentionally using their captor's real  name.
"Could we have some water and more fruit? We're hungry. Well  work
better if we're not hungry."
   Qorl  nodded slightly and began to stand up. But then he froze,
hesitated,  and  settled back into his rigid position.  "Food  and
water when you are finished with repairs."
   "What? " Jacen said in dismay. "But that could take all day."
   "Then you will be hungry and thirsty," Qorl said. The TIE pilot
looked somewhat anxious, impatient. "You are stalling. Proceed."
   Jacen realized that Qorl might be worried that either Tenel  Ka
or  Lowie had managed to get back to the Jedi academy and summoned
help.  They were a long distance from the Great Temple,  across  a
treacherous jungle . . . but there was always a chance.
   Jaina  finished  adjusting  a  cooling  system  regulator.  She
twisted  a  knob;  a  cold,  bright  blast  of  supercooled  steam
screeched  up,  making  feathers of frost  on  the  exposed  metal
surface.  She  stepped  back and rubbed a grimy  hand  across  her
cheek, leaving a dark stain beneath her liquid-brown eyes.
   "Qorl?" she said. "Who are you going to see when you get back?"
   "I will report for duty," he said.
   "Are you going home? Do you have a family?"
   "The Empire is my family." His answer was rapid, automatic.
   "But do you have a family that loves you?" Jaina asked.
   Qorl   hesitated  for  the  briefest  moment,   then   gestured
threateningly with the blaster. "Get back to work."
   Jaina  sighed and motioned for her brother to help  her.  "Come
on, Jacen. Take those last packages of surface metal sealant," she
said. "We need to reinforce the melt spots on the outer hull." She
pointed to three stained and vaporized bull's-eye spots on the TIE
fighter's  outer plating-damage Qorl himself had  caused  the  day
before by firing his blaster at the twins.
   With  a  cushioned hammer, Jaina pounded the bent  plates  back
into  position. Jacen dug into the toolbox until he found a packet
of  animated  metal sealant. The special paste would crawl  across
the  damaged area, smooth itself, and then seal down with  a  bond
even  stronger  than the original hull alloy.  Jacen  applied  one
packet of the patch material and listened to it hiss and steam  as
it coated the burn spot. Jaina fixed the second spot.
   The  third melted area lay high on the cargo compartment, close
to  the  open  transparisteel canopy that protected  the  cockpit.
Jacen  took  the  last pack and crawled atop the small  craft.  He
popped  the  seal, applied the patch, and waited for the  animated
sealant to do its work.
   As  he  watched  the gooey substance finish its repairs,  Jacen
heard  small  creatures stirring around him. He  sensed  something
nearby  and, looking down into the cargo space, saw a  glimmer  of
movement,  almost  transparent, barely noticeable.  Jacen's  heart
leaped.  He  leaned down, reaching deep into the TIE fighter,  and
grabbed for it. Hope began to fill him.
   "Boy,  get out of there!" Qorl yelled. "Come back where  I  can
see you."
   Panting,  his  heart pounding, Jacen pulled  himself  free.  He
backed away from the cockpit and jumped to the ground, keeping his
hands clearly in sight.
   Jaina  bent over and whispered to him with concern in her eyes.
"What are you doing? What did you find in there?"
   Jacen grinned at her, then recovered his expression before Qorl
could notice it. "Something that might save us all."
   "No more talking," Qorl snapped. "Hurry."
   "We're doing the best we can," Jaina replied.
   "Not  good enough," the pilot said. "Do you need encouragement?
If  you cannot complete repairs faster, I will shoot your brother.
Then you will complete the repairs by yourself."
   Both  Jacen and Jaina looked at the TIE pilot in shock.  "Qorl,
you wouldn't do that," Jaina said.
   "I  received  my training from the Empire," Qorl  answered.  "I
will do what is necessary."
   Jacen  swallowed-he knew the TIE pilot was telling  the  truth.
"Yeah, I'll bet you would," he said.
   With  a  sigh and an expression of disgust, Jaina stood up  and
tossed  the hydrospanner onto a pile of tools on the jungle floor.
She brushed her hands down her thighs, wiping grime on the legs of
her jumpsuit.
   "Never  mind," she said. "It's finished. We've done  everything
we can. The TIE fighter is ready to fly again."
   
   17
   
   Inside  the  torchlit  temples of the  Jedi  academy,  Lowbacca
bellowed in confusion and alarm. He waved his lanky, hairy arms to
emphasize the urgency of the situation. He didn't know how to make
them  understand him; he only knew he had to warn them of the  TIE
fighter, had to get help for Jacen and Jaina and Tenel Ka.
   Tionne  and the other Jedi candidates around her grew agitated.
None of them could speak the Wookiee language. "Lowbacca, we can't
understand you," she said. "Where is your translator droid?"
   Lowie  patted his hip again and made a distressed  sound.  He'd
have  never  imagined he'd be so upset not to have  the  jabbering
droid at his side.
   "Where are Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka?" Tionne asked. "Are they
all right?"
   Lowbacca  bellowed  again and gestured  out  into  the  jungle,
trying to explain everything.
   "Was  there  an  accident? Are they hurt?"  Tionne  asked.  Her
mother-of-pearl  eyes were wide and her silver hair  flowed  about
her  as  if  it  were  alive. With her long, delicate  hands,  she
clutched Lowie's furred arm.
   Her voice had been so calm and silky when she sang Jedi ballads
to  the  gathered students in the grand audience chamber. Now  her
words  had  a hard, crystalline edge, the forcefulness of  a  true
Jedi Knight.
   Lowbacca  tried  to think of how to explain,  but  his  growing
frustration made it more and more difficult. He had no words  they
could understand. Yes, he could gesture back toward the jungle-but
how to describe a crashed TIE fighter? A surviving Imperial pilot?
The twins taken hostage?
   The young Jedi Knights had kept their little project completely
secret  while they were making repairs to the crashed ship.  Jaina
had  wanted the revamped craft to be a surprise she could show off
to the other trainees. But now having kept it a secret was working
against them. No one could guess what he was talking about; no one
knew about the crash site.
   He  didn't know what had happened to Tenel Ka, either. Had  she
been killed, or had she somehow escaped? Was she even now lost  in
the  jungles by herself, being stalked by predators? He moaned  in
dismay.
   Unable  to restrain himself, Lowie rattled off the whole  story
in  loud  Wookiee grunts and roars. Everyone around him  grew  agi
tated,  unable  to  decipher a word he was  saying.  Finally,  his
frustration got the best of him: Lowie pounded his fists on one of
the  stone  walls  and  pushed past  Tionne  and  the  other  Jedi
candidates into the cool shadows of the Great Temple.
   "Where  are you going, Lowbacca?" Tionne called, but he  didn't
answer her.
   Though  Lowie  was still tired, the others could not  catch  up
with  him.  With only the slightest limp, his long, muscular  legs
carried him down the winding corridors of the ancient stone  ruin.
Breathless,  he  reached the room that had been  the  old  command
center  when  the  temple served as a Rebel base.  Luke  Skywalker
maintained it to keep contact with the rest of the New Republic.
   He knew his uncle Chewbacca was still in the Yavin system, near
the  orange gas giant where Lando Calrissian had set up his  orbit
ing  mining facility for Corusca gems. If only Lowie could get  in
touch  with  the Millennium Falcon, speak to his uncle,  he  could
explain  everything  directly. Chewbacca-  along  with  Jaceh  and
Jaina's father, Han Solo-would know just what to do.
   With a loud sigh of relief, Lowie sank into a chair in front of
a console. The station was filled with the only things in the Jedi
academy that seemed familiar to him at this moment:  the computers
and  electronic equipment. He knew exactly how to communicate with
them.
   Lowbacca  worked  the  controls with speed  and  determination,
tapping  his clawed fingers over the appropriate buttons.  He  had
already  established an open channel to the  Falcon  by  the  time
Tionne  and  the  others caught up with him in  the  Communicatior
Center.
   Tionne  immediately realized what he was doing, and she nodded.
"Good  idea, Lowbacca!" She waited beside the young Wookiee  as  a
sleepy-sounding Han Solo answer the call.
   "Yeah,  this  is Solo. Who's calling? Luke? Is  this  the  Jedi
academy?"  Lowbacca bleate into the microphone pickup, hoping  the
human pilot would understand him.
   Tionne  leaned  over next to Lowbacca before he could  continue
and  spoke  into  the voice pickup. "Something has happened  here,
General  Solo. The twins and Tenel have disappeared, and  Lowbacca
is  trying  to  tell  us  what happened.  But  he  can't  make  us
understand him. He's lost his translator droid."
   With  a  roar of surprise, Chewbacca came on the line. Excited,
Lowie  once again explained everything as fast as he could in  the
Wookiee language. Chewbacca roared back in outrage, and Han  broke
in.
   "Quiet,  old  buddy, I heard most of that, but  a  few  of  the
details were sketchy. Something about a crashed TIE fighter and an
Imperial soldier taking them hostage?"
   Both Wookiees made loud sounds of agreement.
   "Okay,  sit tight. We're on our way!" Han said. "We can  undock
from Lando's station in just a few seconds. "We were ready to  get
out   of  here  anyway.  The  Falcon'll  be  there  in  about  two
hours-middle of the local morning, I think. Just hold on  and  get
ready to help me fight for the kids!"
   Lowie  and Chewbacca both bellowed in agreement. Tionne  looked
at the young Wookiee in amazement. "A TIE fighter! Imperials here?
Quick, we must get everyone ready in case they attack."
   With a searing white flicker from its aft sublight engines, the
Millennium Falcon cruised through the deep blue atmosphere  toward
the  ancient Massassi structures. Lowie stood in the open  landing
area  in  front of the Great Temple, anxious to see his uncle.  He
waved his shaggy arms for the ship as it approached.
   The  bright  light  of morning grew warmer  with  each  passing
minute.  The two hours it had taken for the Millennium  Falcon  to
leave  the Yavin gas giant and approach the jungle moon had seemed
the longest of Lowie's life.
   Now  he stepped back into the shade of the temple as the Falcon
settled  to  the  ground with hissing bursts of  its  repulsorlift
engines.  The  landing pads settled and stabilized, and  then  the
boarding ramp came down like an opening mouth.
   Chewbacca bounded down the ramp, ducking his hairy head to keep
from  bumping the low ceiling, and headed toward the temple. Lowie
ran  to  meet him halfway, limping slightly. Han Solo charged  out
and joined them, his blaster already drawn.
   "Ready  to  rescue  the kids? Let's go!" Han said.  Tionne  and
several  of  the  other Jedi candidates hurried  out.  Han  looked
around. "Where's Luke? Isn't he back yet?"
   "Master Skywalker isn't here," Tionne said. "We have to  defend
ourselves."
   "Well  take  care of it," Han said. "Lando gave us  some  extra
weapons,  and all our laser cannon banks are charged.  Lowie,  can
you show us where they're being held?"
   Lowbacca nodded his shaggy head.
   "If there are any more Imperial TIE fighters around," Han said,
"the  most  important thing you can do is guard the Jedi  academy,
Tionne.  This  would be their obvious target. The  Empire  doesn't
particularly like the New Republic getting another batch  of  Jedi
Knights."
   "We'll  be  here to defend the academy, General  Solo,"  Tionne
said. "You find the children."
   "All right, Lowie," Han said. "Let's go-no time to waste."
   
   18
   
   The  roar  of twin ion engines shattered the deep stillness  of
the  jungle  morning as the TIE fighter returned  to  life.  Birds
squawked in terror and fled into the high branches. Dust and  dry,
crumbling leaves scattered in clouds around the Imperial ship.
   Encased  in  the cockpit, Qorl throttled up the power,  slowly,
gently,  as  if  feeling it grow at his fingertips. Foul  brownish
exhaust  spat  out of the clogged vent ports in the  rear  of  the
single-fighter craft. The Imperial ship growled, ready for  action
again after its long retirement.
   The  TIE  pilot  emerged from the cockpit, his  battered  black
helmet  in  hand,  the respirator hoses dangling and  disconnected
from  his empty emergency-oxygen supply. Although the glossy blast
goggles had been scratched and worn down during the years  of  his
exile, he carried the helmet proudly, like a trophy.
   Qorl was ready to report back to duty.
   "Propulsion systems check out," he said. "With the addition  of
the  functional hyper-drive motor you installed, I am now able  to
cross  the galaxy and find the remnants of my Empire. This  short-
range fighter could not otherwise have taken me there."
   "Good  work,  Jaina," Jacen grumbled. She elbowed  him  in  the
ribs, and he fell silent.
   "What  are  you  going to do with us, Qorl?"  Jaina  asked  the
pilot. "Why go away from here? If you'd just come back with us  to
the Jedi academy, everything would be all right-the war is over."
   "Surrender is betrayal!" Qorl shouted, with a surge of  emotion
stronger than Jacen had seen in him before. The pilots hand  shook
as  he  pointed the ever-present blaster at them. "Your usefulness
to me is at an end," he said, his voice a low threat.
   Jacen's stomach clenched with sudden dread. Jaina had hoped  to
make  the  TIE  fighter her own vehicle so she could joyride  just
like  Lowie did in his revamped T-23. But the small fighter  could
carry only one person: the pilot. Qorl could never take them along
as  prisoners,  even if he wanted to. Would the pilot  remove  his
last obstacles-the only witnesses to his exile-with clean Imperial
efficiency?  Would he just shoot them both and  then  fly  off  in
search of his home?
   Jacen  desperately  tried to send calming  thoughts  to  soothe
Qorl, as he so frequently did with his crystal snakes. But it  was
no  use: his mind encountered the rigid wall of brainwashing  that
had locked Qorl's thoughts into unchangeable patterns.
   The  TIE  pilot looked away, and his temper seemed  to  lessen.
Jacen couldn't tell if that was a result of his Jedi powers or  if
the Imperial soldier had simply been distracted.
   "So what are you going to do with us?" Jacen asked.
   Qorl  glanced  back at the twins, his face haggard.  He  looked
very  old and drained. "You have helped me a great deal. You  were
the only . . . company I have had for many years. I will leave you
here alone in the jungle."
   "You're  just  going to abandon us?" Jaina asked in  disbelief.
This  time,  Jacen elbowed her in the ribs. He didn't  relish  the
idea  of  being stranded in the jungle any more than she did,  but
several less-appealing possibilities had occurred to him.
   "You  can survive if you are resourceful," Qorl said. "I  know,
because  I did. Perhaps someone will find you eventually. Hope  is
your  best  weapon. It may not take twenty years for  you  to  get
home."
   He pondered for a moment, holding his dark helmet in his hands.
Behind  him,  the repaired TIE fighter continued to  purr,  as  if
anxious  to  fly  again. "You are lucky to be  here,  safe,"  Qorl
finally  said. "I will rejoin the Empire. But as my last act  here
on this cursed jungle moon, I am going to destroy the Rebel base."
   "No!" Jacen and Jaina both shouted in unison.
   "It's  just  a  school  now. It's not a military  base,"  Jacen
added.
   "Please  don't  do this!" Jaina said. "Don't  attack  the  Jedi
academy."
   But  Qorl gave no sign that he heard them. He carefully  placed
the  battered old helmet on his shaggy head and tightened down the
blast shield.
   "Wait!"  Jaina cried, her eyes pleading. "They have no  weapons
in  the  temples!" She reached out with her mind, trying to  touch
the pilot, but he aimed his blaster at her and backed away.
   Qorl climbed into the cockpit of the TIE fighter, eased himself
into  the ancient, torn seat in front of the controls, and  sealed
himself  in. The twins rushed forward, pounding on the  hull  with
their fists.
   The  roar  of the engines increased and the repulsorlifts  sent
out a blast that knocked leaves, pebbles, and jungle debris in all
directions.
   The  TIE  fighter  hummed, shifted from its  overgrown  resting
place, and began to rise.
   Jaina  tried  one  last time to grab the hull plates,  but  her
fingers slid along the smooth metal. Jacen pulled her back as  the
TIE's  engine  power increased. The exhaust shrieked  through  the
fighter's cooling systems.
   The  twins  staggered back under the protection of one  of  the
overarching  Massassi trees, alone and defenseless  in  the  thick
jungles.
   Qorl's  TIE fighter, which had lain hidden and crippled on  the
surface  of Yavin 4 for more than twenty years, finally rose  into
the  air.  Its  twin  ion engines made the characteristic  moaning
sound  that  had  struck fear into the hearts  of  so  many  Rebel
fighters.
   With  surprisingly skillful maneuvering and a burst  of  speed,
Qorl's  fighter  climbed up through the forest canopy  and  soared
away toward the Jedi academy.
   
   19
   
   In  the  darkness of the jungle night, Tenel Ka plunged through
tangled  vines and dense, thorny thickets, hoping that the  flying
reptiles  would  not  be  able  to follow.  She  panted  from  the
exertion; breath burned in her lungs, but she did not cry out.
   She  could still hear the flap of the reptiles' wide,  leathery
wings  close behind her as they swooped in for the kill with their
razor  talons.  The  raucous cries of  their  hideous  twin  heads
chilled  her blood. She remembered hearing that such a  beast  had
almost  killed  Master  Skywalker many  years  ago.  How  did  the
monsters  manage to maneuver in the crowded jungle? she  wondered.
Why couldn't she lose them?
   The  bushes  beside her hissed and rattled, and a stinger  tail
narrowly  missed her arm. One of the winged monsters was  directly
above her, then. What could she do?
   She pushed through a narrower space between two trees and heard
a  thump above her as the flying creature got stuck in the opening
between  the trees. Good, she thought. The rest would have  to  go
around. That would buy her some time.
   Tenel Ka pelted across a clearing toward the shadow of what she
hoped  was another patch of underbrush, but she had misjudged  the
speed with which the reptilian creatures could nagivate the jungle
obstacles.  She could feel the menacing wind from their  wings  as
one of them swooped down directly in her path.
   She  sensed, rather than saw, the outstretched claws, and tried
to  turn  aside, but slipped on rotting vegetation and  fell  hard
against  a fungus-covered log. She sensed a second pair  of  claws
rip  through  the  air  where her stomach had  been  only  moments
before.  She  shuddered  as  twin heads  cried  out  in  rage  and
frustration  above  her, tearing at thick, tangled  twigs  in  the
brush.
   Why  couldn't she remember her Jedi calming techniques when she
needed them? Why hadn't she practiced harder? She closed her eyes,
sensed,  and rolled to one side as the flying monster  drove  down
for another attack.
   The  sound  of dozens of wings overhead prodded her  back  into
motion.  She  rolled  onto  her bare hands  and  knees,  scrambled
through some low thornbushes, pushed herself to her feet, and kept
running.
   Sense, she told herself. Use the Force.
   Suddenly,  she changed direction, as if by reflex.  She  didn't
quite  know why she had, for she couldn't see where she was  going
in the thick night, but she knew she was right. Over and over, she
dodged grasping talons and the thrust of stinging tails, until she
came to a thick stand of Massassi trees. At her noisy approach,  a
chorus  of  squawks and scolding chitters erupted from  the  trees
ahead.
   Woolamanders-an entire pack, from the sound of  them.  She  had
probably  disturbed their communal sleep. Perhaps  they  would  be
sufficient distraction.
   Tenel  Ka crouched low and dove into the shelter of the  close-
growing  trees. Surprisingly, not one of the winged  monsters  fol
lowed.  Instead, she heard their cries as they circled above  and,
deprived  of their initial prey, hunted the woolamanders  instead.
The flying creatures screamed their blood lust, and the voices  of
the terrified woolamanders became fierce and defiant as the battle
raged in the branches far overhead.
   Sweat,  twigs,  leaves, and dirt clung to Tenel  Ka's  red-gold
hair. She shook her head to clear it. She was almost certain  that
through the racket, she had somehow heard a faint, familiar voice.
   "Oh  please,  do be careful. My circuitry is extremely  complex
and  should not under any circumstances be-" The voice cut  off  a
moment  later with a tiny wail. Then there was a thud as something
hard landed beside Tenel Ka's foot.
   "Em  Teedee, is that you?" she said. She groped around  on  the
ground and picked up the rounded metallic form.
   "Oh, Mistress Tenel Ka, it is you!" the little droid cried.  "I
shall be eternally grateful to you for this rescue. Why, you  have
no idea the ordeal I've been through," he moaned. "The poking, the
prodding, the shaking, the tossing. And such a dreadful-"
   "My  night  has  been no more enjoyable than yours,"  Tenel  Ka
interrupted drily.
   "Listen!"  Em Teedee said. "Oh, thank goodness! Those  dreadful
creatures are leaving."
   Tenel  Ka  didn't know whether Em Teedee was referring  to  the
woolamanders  or the giant flying reptiles, but she realized  that
the  sounds of the overhead battle were moving farther and farther
away through the canopy.
   "We must make our escape immediately, Mistress Tenel Ka."
   "We  can't.  We'll have to wait until morning. Can you  keep  a
watch out tonight while I sleep?"
   "I'd  be delighted to keep a watch for you, Mistress, but  must
we spend the night here?"
   "Yes,  we must," Tenel Ka snapped, defensive now that the worst
danger  was over. "I need to wait until daylight so I can climb  a
tree and find out where we are."
   "Oh,"  said  Em  Teedee. "But whyever should  you  want  to  do
something like that?"
   Tenel Ka growled, "Because we're lost in the jungle. This is  a
fact."
   "Oh,  dear-is  that all that's bothering you?" Em Teedee  said.
"Why  didn't  you say so? After all, I am fluent in six  forms  of
communication and I am equipped with all manner of sensors: photo-
optical, olfactory, directional, auditory-"
   "Directional?" Tenel Ka broke in. "You mean you know  where  we
are?"
   "Oh, most assuredly, Mistress Tenel Ka. Didn't I just say so?"
   She  groaned  and shook her head. "All right, Em Teedee,  let's
go. Lead on."
   Tenel Ka's spirits were brighter than the twin beams that shone
from  Em Teedee's eyes and lit her way along the forest floor.  As
annoying  as  the  little droid could be,  she  was  glad  of  his
company. Em Teedee seemed genuinely interested in hearing all that
had  happened  to  her since the TIE fighter pilot  had  tried  to
capture  them that afternoon. In turn, she found herself  enjoying
his  descriptions  of the T-23 crash and his adventures  with  the
woolamanders. She wondered what had happened to Lowbacca,  and  to
the twins.
   They stopped only a few times, so that she could drink or check
the  dressing  on  her  minor wounds. Using rudimentary  first-aid
supplies she kept in her belt, she had bound up the claw scratches
on  her  arm  and  the  gash on her leg. The wounds  throbbed  and
burned, but did not slow her down. She jogged much of the way, and
kept to a fast-paced march even when she needed to rest.
   The  distant  white sun of the Yavin system was bright  in  the
morning sky when Tenel Ka and Em Teedee finally broke through  the
last  stand of trees into the cleared landing area. The sun-warmed
stone of the Great Temple glowed like a welcome beacon in the  dis
tance.
   "Oh,  we  made  it!" Em Teedee said joyfully. Tenel  Ka  looked
around and saw in the center of the clearing a ship that she recog
nized well: the Millennium Falcon.
   Running toward the modified light freighter at full speed  were
two  Wookiees,  one large and one smaller, and Jacen  and  Jaina's
father,  Han Solo. She guessed immediately what mission they  were
on  and  changed her course toward the Falcon, waving and shouting
as she ran.
   Overhead,  she  heard  the  bone-chilling  howl  of   a   fast-
approaching TIE fighter. She put on another burst of speed  toward
the ship.
   But  Solo  and the Wookiees did not see her. In their hurry  to
rescue  Jacen and Jaina, the three scrambled up the  ramp  of  the
Falcon. They must have kept the engines idling to keep them  warm,
she figured, for she could hear their whine.
   Tenel Ka wanted to help rescue the twins; she couldn't let them
down  again. "Call them, Em Teedee," she said, pouring on  a  last
burst of speed, though her legs already trembled with exhaustion.
   Em  Teedee mused, "Am I to take it that you wish to communicate
with them?"
   "This is a fact."
   "Certainly, Mistress. I would be delighted, but what shall-"
   "Just do it!" She gritted her teeth and sprinted as fast as she
could.
   Suddenly  Em  Teedee's voice boomed at top volume  through  the
clearing. "Attention, Millennium Falcon. Please delay departure mo
mentarily to take on two additional passengers."
   Tenel Ka didn't even mind the ringing in her ears when she  saw
the ramp of the Millennium Falcon lower. At full tilt, she ran  up
the ramp.
   "Okay,"  she  gasped,  collapsing to  the  floor  in  the  crew
compartment. "Let's go!"
   Han Solo and the two Wookiees looked at her in amazement for an
instant, but no one needed any further urging. Even as she  spoke,
the  hatches  sealed, and with a surge of defiance the  Millennium
Falcon took off.
   
   20
   
   Qorl flew his single fighter at top speed over the thick jungle
canopy.  The  rushing  air  of Yavin 4  screamed  around  the  TIE
fighter's  rounded  pilot compartment and  the  rectangular  solar
arrays.  He  remembered  his days as a trainee.  He  had  been  an
excellent  pilot- one of the best in his squadron-soaring  through
mock battles and enforcing the Emperor's unbending will.
   Air  currents  buffeted  him, and  the  pilot  reveled  in  the
sensation of flight. He had not forgotten, not even after so  many
years.  The  vibrating  power that pulsed  through  the  fighter's
engines,  along  with a sense of freedom and liberation  after  so
long an exile, buoyed him.
   Qorl watched the knotted green crowns of Massassi trees flowing
beneath  him in the storm of his ship's passage. With his  thickly
gloved,  badly  healed arm, he found it difficult to  control  the
Imperial  craft-but he was a fighter pilot. He was a great  pilot.
He  had  managed to land his ship, despite grievous engine damage,
under heavy enemy fire He had survived undetected in hostile terri
tory for two decades.
   Now,  flying  low  over  the trees to  avoid  notice  from  any
possible  defenses at the Rebel base, Qorl felt his memories,  his
ingrained skill, come flooding back to him.
   The  Empire  is my family. The Rebels wish to destroy  the  New
Order. The Rebels must be eliminated-ELIMINATED!
   His greatest advantage was surprise. This attack would come out
of nowhere. The Rebels would be expecting nothing. He would streak
in  with  all  weapons  blazing. He would  level  the  Rebel  base
structures,  blast them into rubble. He would kill all  those  who
had  conspired  to  blow up the Death Star, who had  killed  Darth
Vader  and Grand Moff Tar-kin. He, a single soldier, would  secure
vengeance for the entire Empire.
   There! Qorl squinted through the scratched goggles of his blast
helmet. Protruding from a clearing in the dense jungle, a towering
stone  temple rose up-a ziggurat, the squarish pyramid that served
as the main structure of the base.
   Qorl   roared  low  over  the  facilities  of  the  old   Rebel
stronghold. A wide, sluggish river sliced through the jungle  near
the  site  of  the temples. On the opposite side of the  brownish-
green   current  lay  other  crumbling  ruins,  but  they   seemed
uninhabited. Then he noticed a large power-generating station next
to  the  towering ziggurat and knew for certain that  he  had  not
been, wrong: this base was still used as a military installation.
   As  he brought the TIE fighter in on his first attack run, Qorl
saw  that the jungle had been cleared to make a large landing area
in  front  of the Great Temple. On the flat field he saw only  one
ship-disk-shaped, with twin prongs in front.
   Qorl didn't immediately recognize the make or model of the lone
ship  below. It was some kind of light freighter, not a  Rebel  X-
wing  or  any  of  the familiar battleships he had  learned  about
during his rigorous combat training.
   On  the  ground, several people ran toward the ship,  sprinting
away  from  the  stone  pyramid.  Scrambling  to  battle  stations
perhaps? His lip curled in a snarl. He would take care of them.
   He  flicked the buttons on his control panel, powering  up  the
TIE  fighter's weapons systems. Before he could align the  victims
in  his  targeting  cross,  though, all the  small  figures  below
managed  to  climb aboard the light freighter. Its  boarding  ramp
drew up, preparing for launch.
   He  dismissed the light freighter as a possible target-for now,
at  least. It was probable, Qori realized, that the Rebels kept  a
large  force  of  more powerful fighters in an underground  hangar
bay.  If  so,  his  first  task was to prevent  those  craft  from
launching- even if only by damaging the doors enough to  keep  the
ships trapped inside.
   He decided his best strategy would be to continue his straight-
line  course  and fire with full-power laser cannons on  the  main
structure  of the Great Temple. He would blow the entire  building
to  rubble-perhaps causing it to collapse internally,  thus  elimi
nating the Rebels and destroying all their equipment inside.
   Then  he  could swoop around and take care of the single  light
freighter, even if it managed to get up off the ground. His  third
target would be the power-generating station.
   With  the Rebels completely paralyzed by his lightning  attack,
he  would  swing back for the last time. He would  charge  up  his
laser  cannons again and go for the kill, mopping up  anything  he
had missed the first time.
   From start to finish, it would take only a few minutes to bring
the Rebels to their knees.
   Qorl  centered the Great Temple in his targeting cross,  aiming
at  the  apex of the squared-off pyramid, with its thin  banks  of
skylights  and  ancient vine-covered sculptures. The  TIE  fighter
zoomed in.
   He  grasped the firing stick with his good hand. At exactly the
right  moment he depressed the firing buttons, letting  an  expres
sion of anticipation light his normally emotionless face.
   Nothing.
   He  squeezed the button again and again- and nothing  happened!
The weapons systems did not respond.
   Qorl  flicked on the backups as he spun the TIE fighter in  the
air, barreling down again on his target. Over and over he tried to
fire,  but the laser cannons were completely dead. His eyes  swept
the diagnostic panels, but all the readings seemed normal.
   With his gloved hand Qorl pounded on the instrumentation panel,
as  if  that  would fix anything-and with old Imperial  equipment,
sometimes it did. But not this time.
   He  frantically  worked with the controls,  digging  under  the
panels  to  restart the weapons systems even as  he  flew  on.  He
reached  down and felt around his seat, searching for anything  he
could use to jump-start the malfunctioning laser cannons.
   Qorl caught the glimmer out of the corner of his eye, reflected
against  the  dark  goggles of his helmet.  He  glanced  down  and
noticed something moving ... sinuous, barely seen, glittering  and
transparent.
   The  crystal snajke reared up right beside him, its  triangular
head  showing up as a faint rainbow in the glow from  the  cockpit
lights.  Qorl,  who  had  seen plenty of the  reptilian  creatures
during his exile on Yavin 4, spotted it immediately and reacted.
   He let out a startled cry and tried to brush the snake away. It
lunged  and bit down as fee reached out with his crippled  arm  to
block it. The crystal snake dug its spearlike fangs info the thick
leather  of Qorl's gauntlet, but was unable to penetrate  all  the
way to his skin.
   As  he flung his hand back and forth, Qorl could feel the heavy
weight  of the crystal snake writhing, snapping, though  he  could
see almost nothing at all.
   He  let the TIE fighter fly itself as he reached with his  good
hand to grab the long body of the serpent just behind its head, He
ripped the fangs free and stuffed the thrashing creature into  the
cockpit jettison chute. With a cry of disgust he ejected the snake
into  the  air,  where it fell toward the treetops of  the  jungle
moon, disappearing instantly in the bright sunlight.
   He  wrestled  for  control of his weaponless vessel.  The  Jedi
twins must have done something in their repairs.
   He  managed  to stabilize his erratic flight... but  before  he
could  decide on a new course, bright streaks from an enemy  laser
cannon  sizzled through the air, bolts of energy that ionized  the
atmosphere around Qorl's TIE fighter.
   He  yanked  at  the control stick with his good  arm,  and  his
fighter  lurched into a starboard spin. The Rebel light  freighter
had taken to the air and was flying after Qorl like a furious bird
of prey. And its weapons worked just fine.
   Qorl  punched in full power to the twin ion engines and decided
that his only chance for now was to try to escape.
   In  the heart of the jungle, next to Qorl's primitive dwelling,
Jacen and Jaina sat beside each other, deep in concentration. They
reached  out with the Force to see what was going on back  at  the
Jedi  academy.  Their powers were only sufficient  to  bring  them
shadowy images, distant echoes of thoughts... but it was enough.
   "He  didn't know I never fixed the weapons systems... but then,
he  never asked. I managed to jury-rig the readouts so they  would
lock  normal," Jaina said at last. "He can fly, but  his  ship  is
defenseless."
   "Yes,  and I think the crystal snake must have distracted  Qorl
somehow," Jacen said.
   "I wonder what happened to it." They smiled at each other.
   "I  suppose  our next step," Jacen said, squinting  up  at  the
morning  light that filtered through the trees, "is to figure  out
how to get back home."
   Jaina  pushed a tangle of her usually straight brown hair  back
from  her  face and took a deep breath. "Agreed," she  said,  then
clapped  her  hands  and rubbed them together.  "So  what  are  we
waiting for?"
   
   21
   
   "Hang on!" Han Solo yelled.
   As  the  Millennium Falcon lifted off from the trampled landing
area  in front of the ancient temple, Tenel Ka struggled to a seat
beside Lowbacca and strapped herself in.
   "That TIE fighter's coming in, and it looks mean," Han said  as
he and his Wookiee copilot frantically set switches and calibrated
the weapons targeting systems. "Hope Tionne managed to get all the
Jedi trainees to safety."
   Their  seats tilted back as the Falcon angled up into the  air,
its sublight thrusters roaring behind it. The Imperial TIE fighter
broke through the sky overhead like a yowling battering ram.
   Han  Solo looked grim as he gripped the controls. His  jaw  was
set,  his shoulders rigid, At the moment he had no way of  knowing
whether  his  children were safe, or if this  Imperial  enemy  had
killed  them  both, just as the pilot had tried to blast  Lowbacca
and Tenel Ka.
   Tenel  Ka wished she could give him some reassurance,  but  she
knew  nothing herself. Still panting with exhaustion from her long
run  through  the jungle, she adjusted the restraints  across  the
reptilian armor on her chest. At her side Em Teedee's thin, warbly
voice spoke up. "I beg your pardon, Mistress Tenel Ka, but I can't
see a thing! Your crash webbing has blocked my optical sensors."
   When  Tenel  Ka  freed  the  flat,  silvery  device  from   its
restraints, Em Teedee let out what sounded like a sigh of  relief.
"Ah, yes, much better. Now I can see perfectly. Oh, dear!" he said
in  alarm.  "I  didn't want you to rescue me  from  that  dreadful
jungle just so we could all be blown up chasing that TIE fighter."
   Lowbacca grunted and looked over at the small translating droid
with obvious surprise and relief.
   "This  is yours, Lowbacca," Tenel Ka said. "I found it  in  the
jungle."  She handed Em Teedee to the young Wookiee, who  accepted
the little droid gratefully, bleating his thanks.
   Han  Solo  spun the Falcon around in a tight arc,  its  engines
rumbling behind them as they pursued the TIE fighter. "He's coming
in  on  an attack run," Han said. "But he's not firing his weapons
for some reason."
   Through  the  cockpit  windows, Tenel Ka  watched  as  the  TIE
fighter she had helped to repair zoomed low over the Great Temple,
seemingly bent on destruction-but its laser cannons did not fire.
   "I'm going to get his attention, Chewie," Han said. "You open a
comm channel. That guy did something to my kids-and I want to find
out where they are."
   Chewbacca growled and reached with his long hairy arm to toggle
a few switches on the Millennium Falcon's control panel.
   Han  fired two warning shots. Bolts of brilliant light streaked
past  the  squarish planar wings of the Imperial  craft-bracketing
it, but doing no damage.
   "Attention,  TIE pilot," Han said. "You're going nowhere  if  I
don't find out where..." He paused."... the two young Jedi Knights
are.  You're in the middle of my targeting cross, so your  choices
are simple: surrender, or we blow you out of the sky."
   A  gruff  voice came back over the comm systems. "Surrender  is
betrayal," the pilot said, then broke the connection.
   The   TIE   fighter  zoomed  upward  on  an  impossibly   steep
trajectory, climbing into the air above the dense green  treetops.
Then the Imperial ship wheeled about in an evasive maneuver.
   "All  right," Han said, his anger evident. "This old  ship  has
taken  on  plenty of TIE fighters in its day. We can take  on  one
more. Punch it, Chewie."
   The  Falcon  lunged  forward  in  another  burst  of  speed  as
Chewbacca worked the controls.
   Em  Teedee  wailed, "Oh, no! I can't watch. Somebody  cover  my
optical sensors."
   Han  spared  a  second to glance back at the droid,  and  found
Lowbacca  cradling Em Teedee in his lap. "Just  like  having  See-
Threepio  with  us  again.  I think we may  have  to  adjust  that
programming."
   "Oh, dear," Em Teedee said.
   In  the  back Lowbacca grumbled a suggestion, which  his  uncle
seconded loudly.
   "Good  idea,"  Han  said. "Let's try the  tractor  beam  first.
Maybe-just  maybe-we can bring that ship to the ground without  de
stroying  it.  That  way we can get some information.  If  we  say
'Please,' he might be a little more cooperative."
   Chewbacca  worked the Falcon's tractor beam generator,  casting
out the invisible beam like a force-field net to grab the Imperial
ship.
   The  TIE  fighter lurched and jerked to one side as the tractor
beam  snagged a partial hold-but the pilot alternated bursts  from
his  twin  ion engines and tore free, spinning upward in  a  tight
corkscrew that made Han whistle with reluctant admiration.
   "This guy's good," he said. "After him, Chewie! Full speed."
   The  TIE fighter, as if seeing it as his one chance for escape,
darted  back down toward the rough greenery of Massassi trees.  It
dodged  jagged  branches  that thrust up like  blackened  witches'
fingers  where lightning and forest fires had burned  the  jungle,
dipped  down to trace the winding courses of rivers, and  streaked
over lush canyons-all with the Millennium Falcon following in  hot
pursuit.
   If  it  were only a matter of speed, the Falcon's more powerful
engines could have outrun the TIE fighter and brought it down, but
the small ship's maneuverability among the dangerous treetops gave
the Imperial pilot a definite advantage.
   Han  Solo, however, had greater determination. "What  have  you
done with my kids?" he yelled into the comm channel.
   It  was  obvious  he  expected no  answer,  but  to  everyone's
surprise,  the pilot spoke back in a calculating voice. "They  are
your  children,  pilot? They were alive when I left  them-but  the
jungle is a dangerous place. There's no telling if they will  last
long enough for you to rescue them."
   Tenel  Ka  marveled at the brilliant strategy. "It's a  trick,"
she said. "He wants you to break off the pursuit."
   "I  know," Han said, glancing back at her. His face was  ashen.
"But what if it's true?"
   The TIE pilot used Han's brief hesitation to take his last best
chance  for  escape: arrowing upward and bolting  straight  toward
space.   The   twin  ion  engines  roared  through  the   thinning
atmosphere.
   Chewbacca yelped in reaction. Without waiting for Han  to  give
the  order, the Wook-iee copilot pushed the accelerators  to  maxi
mum.  The  Falcon,  white  heat rippling from  its  rear  sublight
engines, zoomed after the TIE fighter.
   The  acceleration slammed Tenel Ka back against her  seat,  and
she  grimaced  as  the tug of additional gravities  stretched  her
skin.  She  squeezed her eyes shut. Beside her, Low-bacca  grunted
with  the strain, but Han and Chewie seemed accustomed to  putting
such stress on their bodies.
   The bright, milky-blue sky grew darker, turning a deep purplish
color  around them as they soared upward. The stars shone  out  as
the  Falcon pulled into the night of space. The blurry  sphere  of
the  great  orange  gas giant Yavin filled most of  their  cockpit
windows.
   The TIE fighter zigzagged to throw off pursuit, shifting course
at random intervals and burning a great deal of energy.
   "Maybe we can still wound his ship and pull him in," Han  said,
his voice strained.
   Chewbacca  piloted  the  Falcon as Han controlled  the  weapons
systems. "I can't get a target lock," Han said.
   The  TIE  fighter zoomed above the green jewel  of  the  jungle
moon.
   Arching  around  in  a  tight orbit, the Falcon  clung  to  it,
following closely. Han fired repeatedly with his laser cannons-but
the scarlet bolts missed.
   Han  pounded his fist on the control panel. "Hold still  for  a
minute!" he shouted.
   Then,  as if obliging, the TIE fighter paused in the middle  of
the  weapons  systems  aim-point grid.  The  target  lock  flashed
brightly, and Han gave a whoop of excitement.
   "Gotcha!" he said, and depressed both sets of firing studs.
   But  at  the  last possible instant, the lone TIE fighter  shot
forward with a blaze of astonishing speed, becoming a molten metal
point  of  light.  It  dwindled in the sudden distance,  screaming
forward with instant lightspeed-and plunged into hyperspace with a
silent bang.
   "It's  not  my  fault," Han Solo said, gaping at  the  vanished
target.  He  let  his  shaking hands fall  away  from  the  firing
controls. "A TIE fighter doesn't have lightspeed engines!  It's  a
short-range ship."
   Lowbacca grumbled an explanation, and Tenel Ka nodded.
   "Jaina  did  what?" Han said in disbelief. "But that hyperdrive
was  for  her to tinker with, not to install. She's got a  lot  of
explaining to do with I see her-" He broke off, suddenly realizing
where the twins were.
   "Forget the TIE fighter. Let's go get the twins!" he said.
   He  changed the Falcon's course and arrowed straight back  down
to the emerald-green sphere of the jungle moon of Yavin.
   
   22
   
   Back  at  the tiny jungle clearing where the wreck of  the  TIE
fighter  had rested for two decades, Jacen and Jaina decided  that
their  best  chance for rescue lay in climbing to the  treetops-no
matter  how  difficult it might be. From that height,  they  could
spot any incoming ships and set up some sort of signal.
   Before  leaving, they scrounged at the crash site and at Qorl's
old  encampment for whatever they could possibly find useful, then
stuffed it in their packs. Their Jedi training had taught them  to
be resourceful.
   Remembering how they had used the Force to help them scale  the
Great  Temple with Tenel Ka, the twins found a Massassi tree  with
plenty  of  densely  interwoven branches and hanging  vines.  They
stared  upward,  then  at each other, before beginning  the  long,
sweaty  climb.  Jacen and Jaina were scratched up and  aching  and
smeared with forest debris by the time they made it to the top-but
to their surprise, they felt invigorated by their accomplishment.
   Up  in  the  canopy in a thick nest of tangled  branches,  they
tried  to  light a leafy fire to send a beacon of smoke  into  the
sky. Jacen collected leaves and twigs and piled them onto a curved
piece of plasteel left over from their repairs on the TIE fighter.
   Jaina  had brought Tenel Ka's flash heater, but the charge  was
low. When the finger-sized unit sputtered and flashed, sending out
a  few  last  sparks, she took the back panel  off  and  used  her
multitool  to  tinker with the circuits. By pumping up  the  power
output,  she  produced one last flash that set the pile  of  fresh
branches on fire.
   The  lush  green leaves burned slowly, and the fire  would  not
gain enough heat to become a bright blaze. But, as they had hoped,
a  satisfying  gray-blue smoke curled upward, a clear  signal  for
anyone who was looking.
   Even  so, they couldn't be certain that anyone would know where
to  look. Unless Low-bacca or Tenel Ka had managed to get back  to
the academy, no one would have any idea where to begin a search.
   "Guess it might be a good idea next time if we let someone know
where  we're going and what we're doing, huh?" Jaina said, staring
up at the discouragingly empty blueness.
   "Probably," Jacen agreed, settling himself beside  her  on  the
branches.  Sweat ran down his face as he rested his  chin  on  his
grimy hands. "Want to hear another joke?"
   "No,"  Jaina answered firmly. She wiped her damp forehead  with
the  sleeve of her now-ragged jumpsuit, and continued scanning the
skies. She shifted beside him, feeling the breeze and listening to
the whisper of millions of leaves.
   Jacen fed more leaves to the fire.
   Suddenly, Jaina sat up straight. "Look!" she said, pointing up.
A  white  starpoint grew brighter, glittering silver.  Ripples  of
sound  from  a sonic boom echoed like thunder across  the  sky  of
Yavin 4. "It's a ship."
   Jacen  closed his liquid-brown eyes and smiled. Then the  twins
blinked  and  looked  at each other. "The Falcon,"  they  said  in
unison.
   "Can Dad sense us?" Jacen asked.
   "I  don't think so," Jaina said. "At least not with the  Force.
But wait..." She closed her eyes again, reaching out with what she
knew of Jedi powers. "Lowie's with him!"
   "And Tenel Ka, too," Jacen said. "They're all right!"
   Jaina  laughed  with relief. "Did you expect any  less  from  a
young Jedi Knight?"
   The Falcon must have spotted their smoke, and now headed toward
them.  High  in  the branches, the twins stood and  waved.  As  it
approached,  the blaster-scarred  light freighter seemed the  most
beautiful machine they had ever seen.
   The   big   ship  hovered  over  them  with  a  gust   of   its
repulsorlifts.  Branches blew away beneath  them,  but  Jacen  and
Jaina  held their positions, reaching upward as the bottom  access
hatch of the Falcon popped open.
   Chewbacca's hairy arm dangled down, grabbing Jacen's hands  and
pulling  him up into the ship as if he were a piece of lightweight
luggage. A moment later, Lowie's ginger-furred arms reached out to
help Jaina up.
   Han scrambled from the cockpit, rushing to scoop up both of his
children  in a big hug. "You're alive-you're not hurt!"  he  said,
looking them over with anxious relief. "Sorry I'm late."
   "It's all right," Jacen answered. "We knew you'd come."
   Tenel Ka and Lowie also greeted the twins, with hugs all around
and enthusiastic thumps on the back.
   "Oh, hooray!" Em Teedee's tinny voice chimed in. "This is cause
for a celebration."
   "Let's  get back to the Jedi academy first; I'm sure everyone's
been worried about us," Han said. "I think we need to tell about a
few adventures."
   A  few days later, after the Falcon carried the T-23 back  from
where it had crashed in the treetops, Lowbacca and Jaina worked in
the  shadow-draped courtyard of the Great Temple,  tinkering  with
the  damaged skyhopper. Jaina poked her grease-smeared face up out
of the engine compartment and looked around.
   She  watched  as  Jacen scurried across the landing  field  out
front,  low to the ground, trying to catch an eight-legged  lizard
crab  he wanted to add to his collection. Leaves and broken blades
of  grass were tangled in his tousled hair, as usual. The creature
darted  left  and right, trying to find a hiding place  among  the
close-cropped weeds of the landing field.
   Spying a large shady spot, the lizard crab scuttled for shelter
out  of  reach  under the T-23. Jaina giggled as Jacen  pulled  up
short  just  in  time to keep from banging his  head  against  the
skyhopper's hull.
   With  a shrug, he leaned against the craft and brushed the dirt
from his jumpsuit. "Oh well," he said, grinning. "Next time."
   "As  long as you're just standing there, could you please  hand
me a hydrospanner?" Jaina said.
   Jacen  bent  and  rummaged in the tool kit on the  grass,  then
handed the tool up.
   "You concentrate on the onboard computer systems, Lowie," Jaina
said, discussing repair strategies. "That's what you're best  at."
At the Wookiee's growl of agreement, she added, "Don't worry about
these engines. Ill have them running again in no time."
   "Mind if I join you?" a calm voice said from behind her.
   "Uncle  Luke!" Jaina cried, jumping up and turning toward  him.
"When did you get back?"
   "Only this morning," Luke Skywalker said, looking admiringly at
the  vehicle. "Could you use any help? I'm pretty good with  these
little  air speeders, you know." He smiled as if savoring  a  fond
memory.  "I  had  a ship a little like this once...  my  own  T-16
skyhopper when I was growing up on-"
   Just  then, Tenel Ka emerged from the large lower door  of  the
Great  Temple.  The  cool underlevels had once  stored  the  Rebel
base's X-wing fighters.
   "Excuse  me for a moment," Luke said, and turned to  raise  his
hand  in a warm greeting. He strode over to Tenel Ka and spoke  to
her  for a long while as if she were an old friend. Being with the
great  Jedi  Master caused the young girl from  Dathomir  to  look
uncharacteristically intimidated.
   "Well,  what  are we waiting for?" Jaina asked the others.  She
opened an iriner access panel with her multitool and began running
diagnostics  on the T-23's engines. Jacen surreptitiously  scanned
the  cropped  grass  and weeds, looking for  another  specimen  to
catch.
   Lowbacca  snared  a  tangle of wires from the  cockpit  control
panels  and began sorting them by color and function. He  murmured
to  himself as he worked, and Jacen could hear Em Teedee start  to
speak.  At  a  clunk of something metal hitting the floor  plates,
Jacen  stuck  his  head into the T-23. Lowbacca  had  accidentally
dropped Em Teedee from his belt again.
   The  miniature  translating  droid  began  scolding  the  young
Wookiee  at high volume. "Really, Master Lowbacca, do  try  to  be
careful! You've dropped me again, and that's simply careless.  How
would  you like it if your head detached and kept falling  on  the
ground?  I  am  an extremely valuable piece of equipment  and  you
ought  to take better care of me. If my circuits become damaged  I
won't  be able to translate, and then where will you be?  I  can't
believe-"
   With a grunt, Lowbacca switched off Em Teedee, and then made  a
satisfied sound.
   Jacen  looked up to see Jaina staring at the deep blue sky.  He
followed her gaze and knew exactly what she was thinking. "Do  you
suppose Qorl ever made it back home?"
   "If  he  does, I wonder if he'll find what he expects  when  he
gets  there," she answered. "He would have been better off staying
with us."
   I  When they noticed Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka strolling back
toward  the  T-23, Lowie and Jaina climbed out of  the  dismantled
cockpit to stand next to Jacen.
   Luke  looked at the battered air speeder and ran his fingertips
over  its  smooth hull. "Back on Tatooine I used to  roar  through
Beggar's Canyon in my own T-16, chasing down womp rats."
   Jacen  and  Jaina looked at their uncle, amazed and  unable  to
imagine  the  introspective Jedi Master  as  a  hotshot  daredevil
pilot.
   Luke's  lips  curved  in a wistful smile.  "That  was  a  whole
different  life  from now." He turned to the young  Jedi  Knights.
"When  you  get this thing fixed, I'd like to go for a  ride  with
you. If that's all right."
   They  looked  at him in astonishment. Lowie muttered  something
indecipherable and cleared his throat nervously.
   "I  hope  you're fitting in here, Lowbacca," Luke said, nodding
toward  the young Wookiee. "I know it's difficult to go away  from
home  and stay in a strange place, but I see you've made some  new
friends."
   He  looked  at the others. "I'm proud of you all,"  Luke  said.
"You  did a fine job under very trying circumstances, even when  I
wasn't here to guide you. You have a lot of potential-but becoming
a Jedi Knight takes a great deal of hard work and practice."
   The students nodded. "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said solemnly.
   "You're young, and there are many things you could do with your
lives," Luke said. "Are you certain you still want to become  Jedi
Knights?"
   Their  enthusiastic shouts rang out in unison. Lowbacca's  loud
bellow was so emphatic that even with Em Teedee switched off, none
of the others needed a translation.