Shards of Alderaan

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Another laser blast burned by, narrowly missing the Rock Dragon. Lowie

  punched the accelerators, trying to gain distance.

  Jacen said, "Can't say much for this guy's manners-he didn't even

  introduce himself before he fired." He and Thnel Ka crawled back to

  their seats, holding on as Lowie spun around again, flying a frantic

  evasive pattern.

  Jaina fought with the controls, concentrating on their onboard defenses.

  "I can't find the armament systems,' she said. "We've got to have

  weapons!"

  Tenel Ka said, "My grandmother would have made certain we were fully

  armed."

  'Yes, but I didn't intend to take us into battle," Jaina replied. "I

  haven't studied the weapons systems yet!"

  Lowie snapped a comment and continued to fly, dodging through the

  debrisbut the sleek enemy ship came close in their wake. Em Teedee said

  for him, "I agree with Master Lowbacca. We've no time either for target

  practice or to learn these systems. I suggest we retreat immediately."

  "We're trying,' Jaina said, her jaw tight.

  "But who is this guy? What does he wantother than to blow us into space

  dust."

  Tenel Ka reached forward to the comm system and activated it.

  "Attacking ship, please identify yourself. We mean you no harm." She

  waited, but the other ship did not respond.

  'Maybe it's one of those pirates we thought might be hiding in the

  asteroid field," Jacen suggested.

  "You may be correct, Jacen," Tenel Ka said.

  "Here, I've got some of the weapons systems on-Ene,"Jaina said. 'But

  this sure isn't like the Falcon." She punched several buttons, then

  fired. Her laser shots went wide. The strange-looking ship kept coming

  behind them, undaunted by the display of firepower.

  "Small attack vessel,' Jaina muttered, checking her readouts. "Fast,

  high-powered, and packing more weapons than I can scan . . . this guy

  means business!"

  "Let's just hope his business isn't to add us to the rubble of

  Alderaan!" Jacen said.

  As if in response to Jacen's comment, the enemy ship fired again,

  damaging their shields. The impact sent a shudder through the Rock

  Dragon's cockpit. Red lights burned on their control panels.

  With a roar, Lowie plunged into the densest part of the rubble field,

  squeezing between tumbling mountains of rock, huge asteroids left over

  from the breakup of the planet.

  Jaina fired their weapons again, and missed once more. 'I should have

  calibrated these things . . . or at least figured out how they

  worked."

  Her hands flew over the control panels. 'Too late now."

  The attacker shot another time. It seemed as if he was carefiffly

  conserving his blasts.

  'He can!t miss. Why doesn't he just blow us away." Jacen asked.

  "He certainly has the capability," Tenel Ka said. "However, our

  opponent seems to be targeting us precisely. Perhaps he wishes to avoid

  errors. Ah, aha-he hopes to disable us."

  Lowie glanced down at the status report, an electronic diagram that

  displayed the Rock Dragon's shields, and discovered that the enemy's

  blows had repeatedly landed in one spot. He roared, just as Jaina saw

  it herself. 'Our engines-he's targeting our engines! He wants to board

  us."

  Accelerating for all the engines were worth, Lowie raced toward a

  cluster of huge asteroids. The enormous drffung rocks were riddled with

  craters, cracked with gigantic fissures left over from the planetary

  explosion-places to hide.

  Lowbacca growled softly to himself, wondering how he could dodge the

  enemy long enough to gain sufficient distance to drop out of sight.

  Even in this forest of orbiting rocks, it seemed impossible.

  The other ship fired repeatedly, scoring decisive hits. Their shields

  buckled, ' and the final blow ripped open their rear starboard engine

  pod. The Rock Dragon spun out of control.

  Lowie and Jaina fought to stabilize the cruiser before they careened

  into an asteroid. "Power's down by sixty percent," Jaina said. 'We

  could barely outrun him before now we've got no chance."

  "Perhaps we do," Tenel Ka said. She crept to the armaments control

  panel. "I think I know what this system is for. Find a hiding place,"

  she said, 'and head there on my mark."

  "What are you going to do, Tenel Ka?"

  Jacen said.

  "Observe."

  "Do be careful!" Em Teedee wailed.

  The attacking ship fired again, still making no effort to communicate

  with them.

  His blow struck its target, damaging the Rock Dragon's underbelly as

  well as their second rear engine pod-but as the blow seared against

  their hull plates, Tenel Ka punched a release lever.

  Canisters of ionized decoy gas and shrapnel sprayed out of their aft

  cargo hatch, detonating in a fireball that washed across their pursuer's

  screens, almost certainly blinding him.

  'Now, Lowbacca!" Tenel Ka shouted Lowie reacted instantly, punching the

  controls and arcing around into the shadows behind one of the largest

  asteroids.

  Then he curved up toward another. His golden eyes scanned for a large

  crater, a crack into which the Rock Dragon could slip.

  Their ship limped along, barely able to fly, but Lowie hoped he had

  evaded their vicious attacker long enough to hide them from view.

  Suddenly he saw it: a cave. With engines failing, all of their shields

  gone, and only a trickle of power remaining in the propulsion systems,

  Lowie and Jaina fought to control the bucking Hapan ship.

  They needed to hold the cruiser stable just long enough to descend into

  the opening of the crater cave.

  The jagged ceiling missed scraping their hull by only a meter. Lowie

  had a bad moment, half-expecting the cave to grow narrower, squeezing

  them between rock walls-but the chamber opened up, giving them just

  enough room to maneuver and land.

  They settled onto the rugged surface deep within a large grotto,

  thumping to the ground as their engines coughed and died.

  Rock walls surrounded them, as if the asteroid had swallowed them up

  entirely.

  "Good hiding place, Lowie,' Jaina said, patting the Wookiee on his

  ginger-furred shoulder.

  "Yeah," Jacen said. "Either we're safe here . . . or we're trapped."

  IN ORBIT AROUND Ennth, safe from the powerful pull of the destructive

  moon, Zekk docked the Lighting Rod against the largest of the refugee

  stations. From the cockpit windows, he watched the planet below shiver

  and gasp m its death throes.

  Though he felt stunned, his heart went out to Rastur. The evacuation

  commander still had not rested, continuing to work at high speed even on

  board the ships. Zekk suspected the man kept himself busy to divert his

  thoughts from grief over the loss of Shinnan.

  Four reconditioned cargo haulers cruised in stable orbits next to

  each'other, high above the atmosphere.Ihe decommissioned, lumbering

  containers had been declared unserviceable for interstellar transport,

  but they served well enough as holding tanks for the cast-off people,

  refugees wai
ting to go back to a home blasted clean by lava and

  groundquakes. The freighters'engines had been ripped out, and all cargo

  bays had been lined with bunks and cubicles to accommodate the greatest

  number of people. The survivors of Ennth endured. They would give up

  their privacy and comfort for a year before they could venture back to

  the surface.

  Zekk remembered being a child on one of these refugee stations, how

  nightmarish it had seemed to him. Yet these people were willing to

  suffer again, as they had eight years ago and would again eight years

  hence, for as long as they continued to put up with the cycle of

  devastation.

  Smaller ships flew around, supply runners continuing their ferrying

  duties, dropping off cargo, arranging return schedules.

  Now Zekk could see that while some of them had truly come to help-as

  Peckhum had last time-many of the traders and expediters" were scam

  artists taking advantage of a difficult situation. They charged the

  absolute maximum for their services that the colonists could afford, and

  the people of Ennth had no choice but to pay. . . .

  When the last straggler ships arrived safely at the refugee stations and

  Zekk had settled in, he went back to his quarters on the Lightning Rod,

  having declined the colonists' offer of an assigned bunk inside the

  cramped station. Besides, he needed rest and peace, to be away from the

  crowds, away from so many people whose lives had suffered such tragedy.

  He slept for a fall eleven standard hours, awakening stiff and sore . .

  . but no longer exhausted, no longer at the edge of despair.

  Back on the bustling refugee station, he made his way toward the upper

  levels, taking a series of crowded turbolifts. People moved about,

  chattering with each other, discussing what they had lost and what they

  had saved, already making plans for their return to the surface of

  Ennth. Zekk nodded in greeting, but did not join in their conversation.

  Something disturbed him greatly about their persistence, their forced

  optimism, their blindness to the tragedy they could have avoided-but he

  could not pinpoint it.

  When he finally reached the popular observation deck of the old cargo

  hauler, Zekk scanned the groups of people until he saw Rastur standing

  alone, hands clasped behind his back as he gazed out one of the

  windowports. The others left the stern man to himself, glancing

  sideways at him, thenmurmuring sadly to each other as theylooked down

  upon the blistering surface of Ennth. The world boiled below them.

  The rigid man moved to one side and stared through- a macro-telescope

  mounted on a stand near the observation ports. He stared for a long,

  long time.

  Zekk came up behind him. "Is it all gone?" he said.

  Rastur was not startled. "I've checked out the positions of all our

  cities. Newest Coast lbwn, Another Hopetown, Heartland Settlement. I

  see nothing. No sign that we were ever there.... Once again, it'll be

  a whole new world just waiting for us."

  Zekk looked through the scope and saw flaming trenches of lava. Black

  pillars of smoke rose up through the roiling thunderclouds. As the

  immense moon moved away in its orbit and stopped kneading EnntWs

  surface, the weather would stabihze again, the rains would come, the

  lava would cool-and Ennth would be a clean slate, ready for the

  colonists again.

  And again and again "Why do you bother?" Zekk finally asked.

  He clamped his lips tight as Rastur looked at him in surprise.

  "What do you mean?"

  @y do you keep coming back, when you know everything will be destroyed

  again in less than a decade-over and over? Every time, there's so much

  pain, so much death, so much destruction."

  "And so much renewal," Rastur added.

  He pointed down. "I have already began seismic studies, mapping out a

  good location to build our next Hopetown. I will also choose the best

  spot for erecting the house Shinnan and I designed together. Maybe I'll

  find another wife, or maybe I'll live alone. Life goes on. We must

  continue to do our best."

  "But why, when you know it's hopeless?

  Why not go someplace where you can live out your lives in safety, build

  something that will last for future generations? There are plenty of

  other planets."

  Rastur's eyebrows knitted together. "Because this is our home," he

  said, as if the answer was obvious.

  "Then find another home," Zekk said.

  "I've lived many different places."

  "Yes, and now yoxfve come back to Ennth,' Rastur said. 'It all comes

  back to Ennth.

  This is our colony. We paid for it with our blood and our sweat. We

  can't just abandon it."

  "Even when you know more people will die in eight years?"

  "And many more people will be born in eight years," Rastur said

  stubbornly. "On a planet with four seasons, the colonists live and work

  during the spring and summer and autumn, then crawl back into their

  shelters during the wintertime, preparing for next spring.

  'We all go about our lives during the daytime and return to sleep at

  night, before another day begins. Ennth is just the same. We have

  seven and a half years of building and renewal and success, before we

  must retreat for a year during this time of groundquakes and volcanic

  eruptions.

  But then we come back again and rebuild and continue our lives. It is

  an endless cycle."

  Zekk was angry now, unwilling to accept this way of thinking. "It is a

  pointless cycle," he said.

  "But you are one of us, Zekk," Rastur said. 'You'll understand in time.

  Once you see what it means to invest all of your hope and heart in a

  place-a home-you won't be able to leave so easily."

  Zekk drew in a deep breath. "Then perhaps I should just leave now," he

  said. "I thought this planet might become my home again ... but this

  isn't the kind of change I'm looking for in my life. You can have Ennti

  an your en( s cyc e. I need something more permanent."

  Zekk raced away from the Ennth system in the Lightning Rod, not turning

  back to look at the bloated refugee stations or the angry moon whose

  gravity still ravaged the planetary surface.

  He flew on, his eyes and mind grimly focused forward. He would follow

  the Force now-the light side-letting it direct him.

  He would bounce from place to place until he found his destiny.

  He knew that if he trusted the Force, he couldn't go wrong.

  -----------------IN THEIR LTNCERTAIN and desperate hiding place inside

  the broken asteroid, Jaina shut down all of the Rock Dragon's power

  systems, hoping to prevent detection by the enemy ship.

  "First order of business is to check the extent of our damage," she

  said, moving about, all businesslike. She would have to keep her cool

  during this emergency if the young Jedi Knights were to survive. 'I'm

  not entirely familiar with Hapan engines or electronics, but we've got

  to make these repairs."

  Jacen turned to the warrior girl from Dathomir, his eyebrows raised, and

  leaned close to her. "Do you think your grandmother remembere
d to put

  an instruction manual in this ship?"

  Tbne A no(.(e( wi'..i a grim expression.

  "I would not be surprised if she had included specific procedures on

  making emergency repairs in an asteroid field while an enemy hunts for

  this ship."

  "Ta'a Chume is a very thorough lady," Jacen argued.

  Jaina consulted the console sensors before switching them off to

  conserve their power cells. She determined that the cave contained a

  minimal atmosphere; it seemed thick enough that they could survive

  outside, provided they wore breathing masks.

  @ast we woet need to wear environment suits,' she said. "That'll make

  repairs a lot easier." "Mistress Jaina, is there anything I can do to

  assist you?" Em Teedee said. "I am highly capable in many forms of

  communicationespecially in conferring with electronic devices, such as

  the shivs computer." "Good idea, Em Teedee," Jaina said.

  "Lowie, let's hook up your little droid to the Rock Dragon's diagnostic

  systems and see if he can find any shortcuts or reroutings we can use to

  bypass the damaged systems. Meanwhile, the rest of us'll check out the

  external damage." She placed her hands on her narrow hips. "If we get