Vader's Fortress

by Rebecca Moesta

  worst.

  "No," Tahiri said right away. "I would have felt it through the Force.

  "

  Anakin shook his head as well. "I can sense them. They're still here

  in the castle somewhere."

  Artoo beeped mournfully.

  "Don't worry," Anakin said, "we'll find them." He sounded solid and

  sure.

  "Of course we will," Tahiri said, taking heart from Anakin's

  confidence.

  "It's a big castle," Uldir said doubtfully. "Who knows how many more

  Mages or pirates might be around?"

  Tahiri gulped. She hadn't thought of that.

  "The Force will guide us to Tionne and Ikrit," she said more

  confidently than she felt.

  "But shouldn't we be looking for that magician guy Orloc first?"

  "Why?" Tahiri asked.

  Uldir shrugged. "To get the lightsaber back before he has a chance to

  escape with it. The lightsaber is awfully important to Tionne. Isn't that

  why we came here in the first place?"

  Artoo-Detoo gave a sad beep of agreement.

  "Uldir and Artoo are right," Anakin said. "This may be our only chance

  to get the lightsaber back before it's gone forever. But what about Ikrit

  and Tionne?"

  Uldir narrowed his eyes and looked at them shrewdly. "They're Jedi,

  aren't they? They can take care of themselves better than we can."

  "Let's start searching for Orloc and the light - saber," Tahiri

  suggested. "Tionne and Ikrit will probably find us along the way--or we'll

  find them."

  "Well, yes...," Anakin said with a frown. He stood and walked over to

  the panel by the door that the Mage had used. He closed his eyes for a

  moment and ran his fingers along it, then nodded and pushed a button. One

  of the flagstones in the floor fell away sharply. The companions gathered

  around the hole.

  "I knew these Imperial rations would be good for something," Anakin

  muttered. He threw another packet of rations down the hole to check it for

  depth. It landed a long, long way down. Anakin sighed.

  "There's too much of a drop, so we can't follow Tionne and Ikrit

  anyway. One of us might get hurt if we tried." He nodded. "All right. We'll

  go after the lightsaber irst."

  Artoo-Detoo beeped mournfully. Tahiri put a comforting hand on the

  little droid.

  "It's okay, Artoo. We'll find Ikrit and Tionne and get the lightsaber

  back."

  Tionne opened her eyes to total darkness. A voice came out of the inky

  shadows beside her.

  "Are you well, my friend?"

  "Yes. Thank you, Ikrit. Nothing is broken, but my body feels like it's

  covered with one giant bruise."

  "That was a long fall," Ikrit said. "You used the Force well to

  control your slide and land with so little harm to your body."

  "You must have controlled your own fall fairly well," Tionne

  responded. "You don't sound like you were hurt."

  "True." The furry Jedi Master cleared his throat and sounded a bit

  embarrassed. "But you cushioned my fall. I believe the bruise on your

  shoulder will be Ikrit-shaped."

  "Oh! Is that why it feels like an Imperial chicken walker stepped on

  my shoulder?" Tionne groaned. "Where do you think we are?"

  Ikrit gave a wheezing chuckle. "I could use the Force to sense what is

  around us," he said dryly, "but it might be simpler ii"we used light."

  "I must have fallen harder than I thought," Tionne said ruefully,

  unclipping her lightsaber from her belt and turning it on. With a snap -

  hiss, the beautiful glowing blade sprang forth, shedding a bright pearly

  glow on their surroundings. They were in a small room with rough stone

  walls and an uneven rock floor. A narrow metal staircase ran up one wall

  and vanished into darkness above.

  "Can you walk?" Ikrit asked. "We must find our young Jedi friends."

  Tionne got to her knees and then to a squatting position. She tested

  her weight on her legs before standing up completely.

  "I think so," she said in an unsteady voice.

  "Mmm. Either you can walk or you cannot," Ikrit said. "Thinking will

  not help us reach the children."

  Tionne thought about the junior Jedi somewhere above them in the

  castle with a strange man who claimed to be a magician and who was

  certainly a thief and possibly worse.

  "Yes, of course I can walk. `Do or do not: there is no try,' as Master

  Skywalker always says."

  Ikrit nodded. "These were Master Yoda's words as well."

  He began to climb the steep steps that ran along the wall.

  "We will find our friends, and we will get the lightsaber back. Who

  knows-by the time we track them down, the young ones may have found the

  Mage for us already."

  "Yes," Tionne said thoughtfully, "that's exactly what worries me."

  "I don't believe Orloc has any real magic," Anakin said, "so he can't

  have gone far."

  "Then there's no time to lose," Uldir said, dashing out into the

  hallway and looking both directions for some sign of the Mage.

  Anakin and Tahiri followed him out, and Artoo-Detoo trundled after

  them.

  "There," Tahiri said, pointing at the floor.

  Anakin looked down and saw the outline of a sooty boot print.

  "He must be heading back toward the room where the statue is," Uldir

  said.

  Artoo-Detoo warbled excitedly.

  "All right, let's go," Tahiri said.

  Together they ran to the end of the corridor, but they found no more

  footprints.

  "Which way now?" Uldir asked. "Can you sense anything?"

  Anakin saw Tahiri close her eyes. He closed his own eyes and reached

  out with the Force.

  "No, I can't sense him," Tahiri said.

  Anakin opened his eyes. "Neither can I"

  He heard a distant slapping sound.

  "Sounds like someone running on stone," Tahiri said.

  "It came from this direction," said Uldir, heading at a brisk trot

  down one of the corridors they had not yet explored.

  Anakin and Tahiri dashed after him. ArtooDetoo, tweeting and bleeping

  encouragement, followed as fast as he could with the damaged circuits in

  his right leg. Before long they came to a branching point in the corridor..

  Straight ahead of them a broad stairway rose at a sharp angle, while off to

  the left a small squarish tunnel led away to some other part of the castle.

  "I'll bet he went this way," Uldir said, pointing toward the tunnel.

  "Are you sure?" Tahiri asked.

  Uldir snorted. "Of course not. I could be wrong, but we don't have

  time to waste talking about it. Now if I were Orloc, I'd go this way."

  Anakin nodded.

  "You go that way then; we'll take the stairs."

  "You've got to be kidding," Tahiri groaned. "Not the stairs. I can't

  take any more stairs."

  Artoo-Detoo, who had just caught up with them, tweedled and buzzed

  noisily.

  "Oh, no!" Tahiri said. "Artoo isn't in any condition to climb stairs."

  Anakin looked at Artoo.

  "You'll have to go with Uldir then," he said, pointing toward the

  tunnel the older boy had taken. Artoo-Detoo beeped in agreement and rolled

  off down the tunnel. As he and Tahiri began the climb up the stone


  staircase, Anakin gritted his teeth for a second, trying not to think of

  how sore his legs were going to be. The stairs offered no landings or flat

  areas on which to rest, or even any railings to hold on to, and there was a

  steep drop on either side of the solid rock staircase.

  "Didn't-your grandfather-ever hear-of turbolifts?" Tahiri gasped as

  they climbed.

  Anakin nodded.

  "Sure. We just-haven't found them-yet," he panted.

  When they finally reached the top of the steps, Anakin's and Tahiri's

  legs shook with exhaustion, and perspiration streamed down their faces.

  Before them was a single doorway. Tahiri leaned against the cool stone wall

  beside it, catching her breath while Anakin studied the door. With its

  rounded corners, armor plating, and multiple locks, the door looked as if

  it belonged on some ancient treasure vault.

  "If Orloc's up here, there's nowhere else he could have gone," Anakin

  said.

  "Is the door locked?" Tahiri asked.

  To their surprise, it wasn't. It opened easily at Anakin's touch.

  Anakin and Tahiri each tossed a packet of food rations inside to test for

  booby traps. No lasers fired, no trapdoors opened, no holographic guard

  beasts snapped and snarled. Neither of them was prepared for what they saw

  when they stepped inside. A spacious chamber greeted them. Elegantly

  simple, the room held no ornaments of any kind. The floor and walls and

  ceiling were tiled completely with glossy black stone. Low benches of the

  same black stone reflected purplish light from the glowpanels set into the

  walls every few meters.

  "What's this?" Tahiri asked, pointing to a raised platform that held a

  huge tube made of black plasteel. Wires and hoses snaked out from the

  cylinder in all directions. She ran a hand along its smooth side and found

  some sort of control panel.

  "This looks like the tubes they use to bury dead people in space,"

  Anakin said.

  Tahiri pushed a button, and the cylinder split open with a whoosh.

  Anakin gasped. He and Tahiri exchanged astonished locks.

  "This must have been his... his bedroom," Anakin said.

  "You mean he slept in there?" Tahiri asked. "But why would he need all

  those connectors and hoses?"

  Anakin remembered what his parents and his uncle Luke had told him.

  "My grandfather's body was so damaged and scarred that he needed

  machines to keep him alive." Anakin shuddered. He wasn't sure he wanted to

  be reminded of all the evil things his grandfather had done, or that he had

  been almost half machine before he died. Seeing another control panel in

  the lid of the bed unit, Anakin guessed Darth Vader must have used it to

  open or close the chamber. He reached out to touch the keypad on that

  control panel to shut the cylinder again, but it didn't close. For a moment

  nothing happened, and then an image flickered in the air, hovering over the

  center of the bed. Something clicked and whirred, and a tiny hologram

  appeared, no bigger than Anakin's hand. Tahiri grabbed Anakin's arm, a look

  of amazement on her face.

  "Why would Darth Vader keep a hologram of Master Skywalker?"

  Anakin opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. The little

  hologram of a young Luke Skywalker turned in a slow circle, so that they

  could see it from every angle.

  "I think...," Anakin finally said, "I think it's because Luke was his

  son."

  "Then why isn't there a hologram of your mother when she was Princess

  Leia?" Tahiri asked. "She was his daughter, wasn't she?"

  Anakin frowned and nodded.

  "But Darth Vader didn't know about her until just before he died. He

  knew about Uncle Luke for a long time, though." Anakin felt a lump form in

  his throat. "My mom keeps holograms of me and Jacen and Jaina on her desk

  at work, and Dad has one of me and the twins in the Millennium Falcon. I

  think Darth Vader was just doing the same thing."

  "So maybe he wasn't all bad," Tahiri said in a soft voice.

  "You may be right," Anakin whispered. "Uncle Luke was the one who

  helped him turn back from the dark side before he died, you know."

  For the first time since they had reached Bast Castle, Anakin was very

  glad that he had come.

  Uldir raced down the tunnel at full speed, intent on catching the

  thief Orloc. Something about the lightsaber called to Uldir. In his mind,

  there was something almost magical about it. And he knew the other Jedi

  would be impressed if he managed to get the blade back from Orloc, all on

  his own. Lightsabers had always been the weapons of the Jedi, and this one

  had belonged to a famous Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Somehow, deep inside, Uldir

  thought that maybe if he could get the lightsaber back and hold it, turn it

  on, it might awaken in him the Jedi powers that he was searching for. His

  muscles still ached from the long climb up to Bast Castle, but Uldir turned

  off the part of his mind that felt pain. He concentrated on his goal-

  getting that lightsaber back. He had to have it.

  Uldir heard an electronic squeal behind him.

  "I can't slow down, Artoo," he called. "If you don't catch up to me

  before I find Orloc, I'll come back for you."

  The little droid beeped once to show he understood. Uldir continued to

  pelt down the tunnel. He couldn't tell for sure how far he had run. It

  seemed like at least half a kilometer before the tunnel broadened and fed

  out into a bright, high - ceilinged room. Moving more carefully now - and

  watching for holographic traps-Uldir entered. Inside were a dozen land

  speeders and air speeders, a couple of Imperial shuttles, and three

  beautiful spaceships that must have been hundreds of years old. Uldir

  guessed he had found the docking bay at the front of Bast Castle. He

  decided to be bold.

  "Come out and show yourself. I know you're there," he said, although

  he knew no such thing. "I am a Jedi; you cannot; hide from me."

  It was a bluff, but it worked.. The Mage Orloc stepped out from behind

  one of the Imperial shuttles.

  "All right, you've found me," the Mage said. "Now, what do you plan to

  do with me? I am the Mage of Exis Station, and unless I miss my guess, I

  have a lightsaber and you do not." To prove his point, Orloc held out the

  weapon and turned it on. Even in the well-lit hangar bay the pale blue beam

  appeared bright.

  Uldir looked longingly at the glowing blade. He wanted so badly to

  hold it, to try it. Master Skywalker had said Uldir showed very little Jedi

  potential. But Uldir would prove to Luke Skywalker and the rest of them

  that it wasn't true.

  "What's it like?" he asked finally. "So."

  The Mage looked shrewdly at the teenager and chuckled slightly.

  "You're not really a Jedi, are you?"

  Uldir shook his head and took a step closer.

  "But you want to be one," the Mage guessed.

  Uldir nodded.

  "To answer your question, the lightsaber feels wonderful," Orloc said,

  turning the blade this way and that-although it seemed to Uldir that the

  magician was rather clumsy at using the weapon. "This is true power," the

  Mage went
on. His hand shook slightly as he drew an arc in the air with the

  glowing blade.

  Uldir was surprised and took a step backward again.

  "Are you sure you know how to use one of those?"

  Orloc faltered for a moment, blinked his tawny eyes several times, and

  then recovered.

  "Why, yes. Of course. Why, if you're truly interested, I could teach

  you the mysteries of the galaxy. Come with me to Exis Station. I'll teach

  you everything you need to know to become more powerful than a Jedi. You

  don't really need to study hard, you know. There's an easier way. I'll show

  you."

  Uldir was definitely more interested than he wanted to admit. He had

  always suspected that there were easier ways of learning to use power. He

  thought for a moment.

  "You mean, you could teach me to lift that crate?" he asked, pointing

  to a box near an Imperial shuttle.