Book Read Free

Shards of Alderaan

Page 8

by Kevin J. Anderson


  in the Force when Alderaan was destroyed."

  "I still feel a disturbance," Tenel Ka said.

  "Like echoes."

  Jaina scanned the debris with the ship's sensors. Some of the

  meteoroids were composed of rock, others of metals from different

  portions of the planet-the crust, the mantle, the core.

  Lowie barked a comment, and Em Tbedee translated. "Master Lowbacca

  wishes to know what, exactly, he should be searching for."

  "Something ... special," Jaina answered.

  Jacen added, "But we don't know what it is yet." The asteroids grew

  denser around them.

  Lowie flicked his yellow gaze down to the labyrinth of orbital paths

  diagrammed on the screen. Jaina saw the lines tightening up, the paths

  becoming more congested.

  "'Erne for some fancy flying, Lowie," she said, then smiled back over

  her shoulder at Tenel Ka. "Let's see what the Rock Dragon has to show

  for itself."

  'Oh, my," Em Teedee said.

  The Hapan passenger cruiser skimmed between two of the larger asteroids

  and circled back, curving below the plane of the debris cluster and then

  arrowing back fl=ugh again. While simultaneously flying, watching out

  for obstacles, and studying the navigational diagram, Jaina continued to

  glance at the sensors, searching for exactly the right place to go. She

  felt she would know the place by instinct, as soon as she laid eyes upon

  it.

  When she let her attention flicker for just a moment, Lowie bellowed in

  surprise and wrenched the copilot controls, spinning the Rock Dragon in

  a backward loop to avoid a jagged splinter of stone. He arced back in a

  U-turn and returned the way they had come. Their ship plunged once more

  through the rubble field.

  "Hey, Jaina, are you sure you know where you're going.?" Jacen said.

  @wie growled something reassuring, then performed another U-turn to head

  back through the rocks.

  "This is kind of fun," Jaina said, accelerating as she circled around

  one of the larger chunks so that they could see the cratered landscape

  below them.

  "I am glad you approve of our Hapan technology, Captain," Tenel Ka said.

  "My grandmother assured me you would approve of the special

  modifications she ordered to this ship." "I'm not sure I understand all

  the features of the engines and their subsystems yet," Jaina answered,

  'but that leaves more for me to tinker with. A pilot's duty, you know.

  Thanks for @g me the chance to fly this, Tenel Ka."

  Jacen kept peering out the side winaow, shaking his head. 'It's amazing

  to think this was once a whole planet. . . . Alder

  SHARDS OF ALDERAAN ill

  aan. I heard that some smugglers or pirates had been using this rubble

  as a relay station or a hideout, just like the asteroid field around

  Hoth."

  Tenel Ka grunted. 'There will always be such stories. Some are true,

  others are not.

  I doubt we will find pirates here."

  Jaina let Lowie handle the flying while she studied the sensors again,

  hoping to spot that special something she was looking for. The Hapan

  ship had plenty of unusual diagnostic devices; it seemed as if Tenel

  Ka's grandmother had installed every imaginable system. But Jaina used

  only the diagnostics with which she was most familiar, analyzing rocks,

  looking for something out of the ordinary.

  A special gift for her mother.

  When the bizarre asteroid showed up on her screens, Jaina knew instantly

  that she had found their target.

  "Lowie, here's our new course," she said, highlighting one of the blips

  among the green lines on the navigational projection panel.

  The large asteroid reflected light from the Alderaan system's distant

  sun. Its surface was pockmarked and pitted, but it gleamed with a

  metallic sheen. The readings indicated that this asteroid % almost pure

  metal, with a higher concentration of precious elements than any other

  in the asteroid field.

  They had discovered a lump from the true core of Alderaan, the heart of

  her mother's world. The other young Jedi Knights leaned forward to see

  as the Rock Dragon approached the asteroid.

  'That's the one," Jaina said.

  -----------------AS HE SCANNED the surface of Ennth, Zekk was surprised

  to find scattered settlements in the same locations where previous

  cities had been destroyed eight years before.

  Zekk adjusted the Lightning Rod's course and guided it into the stream

  of shuttle traffic toward the main settlement, where his parents had

  lived, where they had made their dreams. . . . He remembered that

  the colonists optimistically renamed the villages each timeNew Hopetown,

  Newer Hopetown, and Newest Hopetown. He wondered what they would do

  once they ran out of qualifiers.

  Powering up the ship's comm system, Zekk transmitted a message to the

  central control barracks, identifying himself. He briefly told his

  story, that he was a prodigal son from Ennth who had now returned.

  The communications controller greeted him with surprise, but her voice

  held the breathless urgency of someone burdened with too many

  responsibilities. She put on another man, an operations commander named

  Rastur, who was in charge of the evacuation activities. Zekk thought he

  remembered the man: during the previous disaster, a brave young soldier

  named Rastur had been decorated for his heroic feats.

  He had apparently risen in importance and now had the primary

  responsibility for preserving the persistent colonists of Ennth.

  As he brought the Lightning Rod down into the belt of stormclouds, Zekk

  hoped the ship wouldn't prove to be aptly named.

  He passed through knotted black thunderheads, roiling weather systems

  churned up by the oncoming moon's tidal chaos.

  Below, the landscape of Ennth lay black and jumbled. Hardened lava rock

  stood out in cracked scabs. The broken outcroppings looked fresh and

  solid, laid down in the eruptions of only eight years ago.

  Zekk saw green patches in the hardened rocky landscape, small jewels of

  farmland fertilized and tilled. To his astonishment, workers still

  frantically combed the fields to finish one last harvest before they had

  to depart from their doomed world. Those food supplies would have to

  last the people on the refugee stations until the Ennth colonists could

  reestablish their settlements on a piistine landscape in another year.

  Fighting against the turbulent wind, Zekk's ship approached the remains

  of a bustling spaceport, a stripped-down landing area surrounded by

  dismantled buildings and partially torn down warehouses.

  Zekk brought the Lightning Rod in as several cargo ships, heavily loaded

  with people and supplies, lumbered into the air.

  Barely aerodynamic, the ships wobbled as they gained altitude. Other

  ships came in and circled, scouting for any available landing space.

  He secured the ship, opened the hatch, then bounded down the ramp, ready

  to help. @oops and rescue workers scurried about-volunteers, colonists,

  everyone doing their part. The air, smelling of smoke and sulfur, was

  heavy with humidity and ozone
from the stormclouds overhead.

  In the city square Zekk saw huge statues, colorful paintings along the

  sides of lava-brick walls, vibrant artistic expressions everywhere he

  turned-all being left behind. Each masterwork of sculpture and

  illustration had been carved or painted in the past eight years as an

  expression of thanksgiving by the colonists when they had rebuilt their

  demolished town.

  As he stood outside the Lightning Rod, a young woman rushed over to meet

  him.

  She was trim, in her early twenties, wearing a comfortable utility suit,

  her hair dark brown and cropped close to her head. Her eyes, a deep

  sepia, squinted with weariness and strain.

  "Are you Zekk?" she said, gesturing for him to accompany her back to the

  headquarters building. She began walking immediately without waiting

  for Zekk, as if she had no time at all for light conversation.

  She called over her shoulder. 'Welcome to Another Hopetown. I'm

  Shinnan. I remember your parents from when I was thirteen years old,

  during the last evacuation. You were just a boy then . . . seven?"

  'Almost nine," Zekk corrected. 'I think I remember you, too. You were

  kind of a bossy girl telling the other kids what to do." She smiled.

  "Yes, and now I'm a bossy woman telling grown-ups what to do. I hope

  you've come here to help. We could certainly use an extra hand during

  the last stages of the evacuation."

  Zekk looked up into the darkening clouds.

  He saw crisscrossed lines of ship exhausts like white spiderwebs

  highlighted by flashes of hghtning. "I came home," he said. "I've done

  a lot of things in my life, but now I've returned to Ennth. I'll gladly

  lend a hand."

  He hurried to keep up with Shinnan's rapid steps. Around him he saw the

  foundations of sheared-off buildings and tentcovered supply stacks

  lashed down and waiting to be picked up by cargo ships. The Ennth

  colonists continued to work steadily without rest, managing to look

  frenzied and organized at the same time.

  On the way to the main command center, they passed abandoned buildings;

  some of the roofs had collapsed, windows broken.

  Tremors and aftershocks had slammed through Ennth for the past year or

  so, yet the colonists had waited until the last minute to pack up.

  Partly through the Force and partly through his own nerve endings, Zekk

  felt the ground trembling beneath his feet, as if he stood on a bomb

  just waiting to explode.

  The only structures still inhabited seemed to be small stone dwellings

  near the command center-probably the quarters for Shinnan and Rastur and

  the other evacuation workers who had vowed to stay until the bitter end

  . . . just as his own parents had tragically done, eight years

  before.

  The ground suddenly shook, as if a squirming krayt dragon lay just under

  the surface. Zekk stumbled, but Shinnan did not even pause in her step.

  The tremors ceased in only a few seconds. Shinnan made no comment at

  all as she took him inside the command center.

  A lean, hard-looking man stepped up to them. His eyes were old beyond

  his years, with stress lines etched into his face. He carried a deep

  sorrow within him. "Rastur, this is Zekk-returned to us after these

  many years." Shinnan paused, seeing the dead look on Rastur's face.

  "What's wrong, my love?" She slid her arms beneath his and held him

  tightly.

  "I received word from our reconnaissance flyers," Rastur said. 'Newest

  Coast 'fbwn has just been destroyed." Shinnan gasped, then composed

  herself.

  "What happened?"

  "A tidal wave," he said, "undersea seismic activities. We saw it

  coming, but had only a few minutes' warning. The wave came in a

  thousand meters high and wiped out the entire settlement." He drew in a

  deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Luckily, we had

  already stepped up evacuation and salvage procedures. We got eighty

  percent of the supplies to safety in orbit. Most of the settlers had

  taken refuge, except for a hundred or so who remained behind for a last

  run. We also lost two supply ships." Zekk listened with growing horror,

  but didn't say anything. Shinnan spoke up.

  "Any chance for rescue operations?"

  "There were no survivors,' Rastur said firmly, "not even any flotsam and

  jetsam to salvage. . . ." His voice hitched before he brought it back

  under control. "In fact, there's not even much of a coast left where

  the wave hit."

  Shinnan hugged the man briefly. "We knew to expect casualties, Rastur,"

  she said. "We'll have a year to mourn once we're all off planet and

  waiting for the land to settle down again. For now, we've got work to

  do."

  Finally Rastur became aware of Zekk, his eyes lighting up with a glimmer

  of welcome. "We're glad you've come home, Zekk-now, more than ever, we

  could use your help. Your people need you."

  For the next few days, Zekk worked harder than he ever had in his life,

  filling the Lightning Rod's cargo holds to capacity and flying up to the

  refugee stations in orbit. He got to know some of the supply runners as

  well as several of the colonists.

  Many claimed to remember him as a child; others didn't, but welcomed him

  anyway.

  Despite the impending disaster and devastation, everyone on Ennth seemed

  willing to pull together as a team for a common goal, salvaging what

  they could from their homes and their lives, fleeing to safety before

  the groundquakes and volcanoes and tidal waves destroyed everything.

  Many people died in the rush, some through carelessness, others through

  accidents. A few older colonists even dropped from sheer exhaustion,

  left behind to be buried by the violent upheaval of their adopted world.

  In the frantic command center, Rastur never seemed to sleep, directing

  hundreds of shuttle flights, deciding which shipments had to go first,

  which colonists would be stationed on which refugee station. Shinnan

  did her best to assist him, taking care of the people, listening to

  complaints and suggestions . . . somehow managing to hold it all

  together.

  One day later that week, lightning struck across the landscape like

  turbolaser bolts, blasting sand and lava rock. The winds picked up,

  making it dffficult for the last cargo ships to take off safely. With

  his long dark hair tied in a ponytail to keep it out of the way, Zekk

  remained behind to dismantle the remaining computers from the command

  center, haphazardly packing them into the last few battered crates, then

  hauling all nonessential components away.

  Rastur turned from his central post, his expression even grimmer than

  his usual perpetual frown. "We've just lost Heartland Settlement to

  lava," he said. 'A chain of volcanoes ripped it to pieces and

  incinerated the remaining structures. Luckily the last flights had

  already taken off. No casualties. Minimal loss of equipment." The

  other workers in the command center set up a ragged cheer. "We're all

  finished here at Another Hopetown, Rastur," Shinnan said. "All that

  remains is to pack up our own quarters
and possessions."

  "All right, I'm glad we left that until last.

  Everything else is taken care of, so I'll be able to sleep better at

  night,' he said, "once we get off the surface and up to the refugee

  stations."

  Shinnan stepped to the doorway of the command center. Zekk followed

  her, ready to offer his help, though his arms and legs felt ready to

  drop off. Utterly exhausted, he still felt exhilarated by how much they

  had accomplished despite seemingly impossible odds. Though they had

  suffered casualties, Ennth had been successfully evacuated.

  Then the groundquake struck.

  Not just a tremor like those he had experienced hundreds of times in the

  last few days-the seismic shock felt as if a Super Star Destroyer had

  crashed down on the planet, slamming into the world's crust like a giant

  mallet. The remaining computer stands inside the command center fell

  over. Other buildings surrounding the near-deserted square swayed and

  rocked.

  One of the tall statues toppled and smashed on the cobblestones.

  While Zekk held the door frame and fought for balance, Shinnan sprinted

  across the open square. Bobbing and weaving, she headed directly toward

  the low stone structures that had served as living quarters for the

  evacuation personnel.

  "Shinnan, no!" Zekk cried. He whirled to look at Rastur. "Where is she

 

‹ Prev