Dark Apprentice

by Kevin J. Anderson

  concern and uneasiness. For the third time in as many minutes, he wiped a

  hand

  across his brow.

  The scoring computer held them at ninety-four points each. The time now

  passed in a flash, and Han found himself so intent on the game that he had

  not

  thought about Leia's desperate situation for at least fifteen seconds.

  "How do I know you don't have some trick programmed into ^the cards?"

  Lando said, staring at the aluminized plates but holding the displays out of

  Han's line of sight.

  "You suggested this game, buddy. These were my old cards, but you

  degaussed them yourself. They're straight, no tricks." He let a smile creep

  across his lips. "And this time there's no sudden change of rules during the

  final scoring round."

  Han waited a second longer, then impatiently took the initiative. "I'm

  keeping three cards," he said, and put two others facedown in the center of

  the randomizer field. He pressed the scan button to change the value and

  suit

  on his cards, then slid them back out of the field to look at what he had

  drawn.

  Lando held out two cards and thought better of it, biting his lower lip,

  and pulled out a third. Han felt a wave of jubilation. Lando's hand was even

  worse than his own.

  Han's heart pounded. He had a flush of Staves, a low flush with no face

  cards; but if he could beat Lando, this hand would give him enough points to

  pass the target score. Lando stared at his own cards, smiling a little bit,

  but Han thought it was forced.

  "Go on," Han said, and slipped his cards one at a time onto the platform.

  "Do I get extra points for having a completely random hand?" Lando said,

  then sighed. He put his elbows on the table and frowned.

  Han slapped a hand on his flush. "The Falcon's mine again!"

  Lando smirked, as if losing the ship were a mixed blessing. "At least

  you're getting her back in better condition."

  Han clapped his friend on the back andwitha light step danced back toward

  the cockpit. Slowly, with a sigh of satisfaction, he lowered himself back

  into

  the pilot's seat.

  Now, he thought, if he could just get to Leia in time, this would be a

  perfect day.

  20

  Kyp Durron trudged through the dense rain forest of Yavin 4, trying to

  find hidden paths where the jungle would allow him to pass. He knew exactly

  where to go. The dark spirit of Exar Kun had shown him.

  With the stirring of the underbrush, reptilian predator birds burst

  squawking into flight, disturbed from the bloody carcass of a kill they had

  dragged into the canopy.

  Kyp's assigned companion Dorsk 81 stumbled beside him. The thin, smooth-

  skinned alien had a much more difficult time with the steamy air and the

  steep

  climbs.

  A purple-furred woolamander clambered through the overhead network of

  Massassi trees. Dorsk 81 looked up, startled--but Kyp had sensed the beast

  minutes before, feeling its primal panic and indecision build until finally

  it

  had to flee.

  Kyp wiped sweat out of his eyes and shook his head, sending droplets of

  perspiration flying. He squinted again and moved forward with greater speed,

  knowing they had almost reached their destination--though Dorsk 81 had no

  idea

  yet.

  Insects and small biting creatures buzzed and scuttled around them, but

  none bothered Kyp. He consciously exuded a shadow of uneasiness around him

  so

  that lower creatures had no incentive to come nearer. Exar Kun had taught

  him

  that trick too.

  Dorsk 81 opened his lipless mouth, panting as he tried to keep up with

  the vigorous pace. His yellow and olive-green skin was unblemished, his nose

  flattened and smo oth, his ears tucked back against his head as if someone

  had

  designed his race in a wind tunnel. The alien looked miserable; his wide-set

  eyes blinked, and his face gleamed with a sheen of moisture. "I was not bred

  for this," Dorsk 81 said.

  Kyp slowed, but not enough to bring relief to his companion. He softened

  the tone of his instinctive retort. "You were not bred for anything but

  bureaucracy and a comfortable life. I don't understand how the planet Khomm

  could have survived unchanged for a thousand years. Or why your people

  wanted

  it to."

  Dorsk 81 took no offense and followed Kyp. "Our society and our genetics

  reached their perfection a millennium ago, or at least that's what we

  decided

  at the time. To prevent undesirable changes, we froze our culture at that

  level. We took our perfect race and cloned them rather than risking genetic

  anomalies.

  "I am the eighty-first clone of Dorsk. Eighty generations before me have

  been identical, doing the same jobs with the same level of skill,

  maintaining

  our level of perfection and not slipping back." Dorsk 81 frowned, andwitha

  burst of surprising energy he pushed around Kyp. He flung himself into the

  effort of making a path through the dense brush with all the strength he

  possessed. "But I was a failure," he said. "I was different."

  Kyp gestured to an identical-looking thicket of raven-thorns, spotting

  the invisible maze of a relatively simple path. "You have the potential to

  become a Jedi Knight," he said. "How can you consider that a failure?"

  Dorsk 81 clawed his way out of the tangle he had become trapped in.

  Stains from crushed berries and flower petals dotted his uniform. "It is

  unsettling... to be different," he said.

  Kyp spoke partly to himself and partly to his companion. "Yes, but

  sometimes it's exhilarating to know you can rise above the others who are

  trapped down below."

  He ducked into the low tunnel of gloomy foliage and dangling mosses. Tiny

  gnats flew away from his face. The deep shadows suddenly made him think of

  the

  black spice mines of Kessel where he had been forced to work as a slave.

  "The Empire ruined my life," Kyp said. "My parents were political

  resisters. They marked the anniversary of the Ghorman Massacre, and they

  protested the destruction of Alderaan--but by that time the Emperor had lost

  all patience with political objections.

  "Stormtroopers came in the middle of the night, battered their way into

  our home on the colony of Deyer. They took my parents, stunned them in front

  of our eyes, leaving them paralyzed and twitching on the floor. My father

  couldn't even close his eyes. Tears ran down his cheek, but his arms and his

  legs kept jittering. He couldn't get up. The stormtroopers dragged him and

  my

  mother out.

  "My brother Zeth was five years older than me. They took him. He was only

  fourteen, I think. They put stun-cuffs on his hands. They kicked him, pushed

  him out, and then they stunned me.

  "I found out later that they took Zeth to the Imperial Military Academy

  on Carida. They put my parents and me in the Correctional Facility on

  Kessel,

  where we had to work in the spice mines. I spent most of my days in pitch-

&
nbsp; darkness because any light straying into the mine shafts spoils spice

  crystals. My parents died there after only a few years.

  "I had to take care of myself even when the prisoners overthrew the

  Correctional Facility and took over. The crime lord there, Moruth Doole,

  tossed the captured Imperials down into the spice mines. Doole let some of

  the

  prisoners out--but not many and not me. Our masters had changed, but we

  remained slaves."

  Dorsk 81 looked at him with his glittering wide-set eyes. "How did you

  escape?" he said.

  "Han Solo rescued me," Kyp answered; warmth filtered into his voice. "We

  stole a shuttle and fled into the black hole cluster. There we stumbled upon

  a

  secret Imperial research installation, and we were captured again--this time

  by Admiral Daala and her fleet of Star Destroyers. Han got us out of there

  after Daala had placed a death sentence on me."

  Anger curled through him, making his head buzz, making him feel stronger.

  He tapped into t strength. "You can understand why the Imperials make me so

  furious," he said. "It seems that every step of my life the Empire has tried

  to beat me into submission, tried to take away the rights and pleasures that

  other life-forms enjoy."

  "You can't fight the Empire alone," Dorsk 81 said.

  Kyp didn't answer for a long moment. "Perhaps not yet," he said.

  Before Dorsk 81 could say anything, Kyp parted a dense clump of blueleaf

  branches. He felt an electric thrill down his spine as the Force told him

  they

  had arrived.

  "This," Kyp whispered, "this is our destination."

  In front of them the jungle gave way to a circular pond that shone like a

  flat quicksilver mirror, completely free of ripples. In the center of the

  lake

  stood a small island dominated by an obsidian split-pyramid of sharp angles

  showing the distinctive markings of Massassi architecture another temple,

  the

  same one Gantoris and Streen had located weeks before, but Luke Skywalker

  had

  not yet explored it. Exar Kun had told Kyp all about it.

  Between the bifurcated spire of the tall pyramid stood a colossus, a

  polished black statue of a dark man, with long hair swept back behind him,

  the

  tattoo of a black sun emblazoned on his forehead, and the padded garments of

  an ancient lord, the Dark Lord of the Sith.

  Kyp swallowed hard at seeing the image of Exar Kun.

  "Who do you think he was?" Dorsk 81 asked, squinting to stare across the

  water.

  Kyp answered in a quiet, husky voice. "Someone very powerful."

  The great orange sphere of Yavin lurked on the horizon with only a fuzzy

  curve peeping over the tops of the jungle. The system's small sun would also

  be setting soon. The twin lights in the sky cast intersecting glitter paths

  across the still lake.

  Kyp gestured toward the temple. "We can spend the night there if you'd

  like," he said.

  Dorsk 81 nodded with more eagerness than Kyp had expected. "I would like

  to sleep inside shelter again," he said, "rather than up in a tree tangled

  in

  vines. But how are we going to get out there? How deep is the lake?"

  Kyp went to the edge. The water was as transparent as diamond and so deep

  that it reflected the bottom like a lens, making it impossible to determine

  how far down the water went. Just below the surface he saw columns of rock

  rising from the bottom like submerged stepping stones that stopped just

  barely

  beneath the water.

  Kyp stepped out onto one. The clear water rippled around the bottom of

  his shoe, but he did not sink in. He took another step to the second stone.

  Dorsk 81 stared at him; Kyp knew that he must appear to be walking

  directly across the surface of the water. "Are you using the Force?" Dorsk

  81

  said.

  Kyp laughed. "No, I'm using stepping stones."

  Without hesitation he splashed to the next stone and then the next, eager

  to reach the temple--a source of new knowledge and secret techniques. On the

  island he stepped onto mounds of pitted volcanic rock splotched with orange

  and green lichen that looked like droplets of alien blood. He could already

  feel the power.

  Kyp turned to watch his companion pick his way across the lake. It looked

  very much as if Dorsk 81 balanced on the fragile membrane of the pool's

  surface. The illusion was very effective. Around him silence blanketed the

  island, as if none of the jungle creatures or insects dared to come near the

  empty temple.

  "It's cold here," Dorsk 81 said, shaking water off his feet and looking

  around. The smooth-skinned alien hunched his head closer to his shoulders.

  "You were complaining before about how hot it was," Kyp said. "You should

  be grateful."

  Dorsk 81 clamped his lipless mouth shut and nodded once, but said nothing

  else.

  Kyp walked around, looking at the polished black glass angles of the

  pyramid, the jutting point at the top. The architecture had been designed as

  an angular funnel to concentrate the Force, assembled to enhance the powers

  of

  Sith rituals.

  He stared up at the frozen statue of Exar Kun. The brooding dark lord

  looked so real to him, so awe inspiring, that Kyp expected the sculpture to

  bend down and grasp him.

  Kyp knew now that the Great Temple was the focal point for the entire

  Massassi civilization that Exar Kun had built up from primitive decay. The

  Great Temple had been the headquarters, the prime focus of Kun's battles in

  the Sith War. But this small, isolated temple had been more of a private

  retreat, the place where Exar Kun had concentrated on improving his own

  abilities, strengthening himself.

  A cool wind breathed out of the wedge-shaped opening as if the silent

  temple were some kind of sleeping monster. "Let's go inside," Kyp said.

  He ducked his head and took one step into the enfolding darkness. But

  when he blinked his eyes, the light gradually grew inside the chamber as if

  lightning bolts trapped within the black slabs of glass continued to send

  faint sparks visible only from the corner of his eye. When Kyp faced the

  polished dark walls, he saw nothing in them, only faint etched markings of

  hieroglyphics in a long-forgotten language. He could not read any of the

  words.

  Deep green tendrils of moss grew like frozen biological flames that

  worked their way up the polished stones. Against one wall stood a smooth

  rounded cistern filled with water.

  Kyp s tepped over to the cistern and dipped his fingers in, surprised and

  delighted to find the liquid cold and clean. He splashed his sweaty face,

  and

  then he drank, savoring the sweetness of the water as it slid down his

  throat.

  He sighed.

  Dorsk 81 stood just within the opening, looking out at the jungle beyond

  the lake. The sphere of Yavin had vanished below the treetops, and the sky

  began to thicken with purple twilight as the distant sun also set. "I'm very

  sleepy all of a sudden," he said.

  Kyp fr
owned, but thought he knew what was happening. "You've traveled a

  long way today," he said. "It's cool and dark in here. Why don't you sleep?

  The floor looks smooth and comfortable. You can curl up against the wall."

  As if hypnotized, Dorsk 81 shambled over to a corner and slithered down

  against the wall until he lay with his back pressed against the obsidian

  slab.

  He fell asleep almost before he had settled into place.

  "Now you and I can continue in a more appropriate setting." The deep,

  loud voice echoed like distant thunder inside the chamber.

  Kyp turned to see the hooded silhouette of Exar Kun like a black oil

  stain shimmering in the air. Kyp stood tall, squashing a thrill of terror

  every time the ancient Lord of the Sith spoke to him.

  Kyp indicated Dorsk 81. "Will he wake up? Will he see you?"

  Exar Kun raised his shadowy arms. "Not until we have finished," he said.

  "All right." Kyp squatted on the cool floor, tucking his robe around him

  as he found a comfortable position. He knew that his relaxed attitude might

  appear to be haughtiness or defiance of Exar Kun, but he didn't care.

  The ancient Sith Lord began to speak. "Skywalker has taught you

  everything he knows. He makes excuses, but he can go no further because he

  has

  denied himself other options. He cannot grow as a Jedi by blocking out

  possibilities, by wearing blinders to what can be and what should be."

  Exar Kun loomed over Kyp, hovering closer even though he didn't appear to

  have taken a step. "You have already learned more than Skywalker will ever

  know, my student."

  Kyp felt enthusiasm and pride burn through him, and he tensed his body,

  wanting to leap to his feet. But he restrained himself.

  "Look at what I can show you today," Exar Kun said, gesturing toward the

  obsidian walls and the incomprehensible hieroglyphs barely visible, black

  lines against black volcanic glass. But as Kyp looked at them, the words

  filled with white fire, standing out against the bottomless, opaque

  background

  until they burned into his eyes.

  And suddenly Kyp could understand. The words snapped into focus and

  filled his mind, an incredible history from four thousand years ago, telling

  how Exar Kun had begun to learn forbidden teachings, how he had come to the

  fourth moon of Yavin to find a lost Sith power object, and how he had

  enslaved

  the timid and weak Massassi people, making them build enormous temples for