Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy II: Dark Apprentice

by Kevin J. Anderson

  As he drifted away from the blue-giant cluster, he noted that only about an hour remained before the massive explosions would begin. The waiting seemed to go on forever. He sent out his thoughts again, wishing he could taunt Daala.

  Then, unexpectedly, her Star Destroyers began to move. The Basilisk and the Gorgon powered up their sublight engines and started a slow drift, aligning themselves to a hyperspace path, as if they were ready to launch another attack.

  Kyp felt a flame of anger sear through him. “No—she can’t leave now!”

  He could not go back and stop the explosion of the core stars. Daala had to stay where she would be trapped!

  Kyp slapped at the Sun Crusher’s weapon-control systems, powering up the defensive laser cannons mounted at sharp angles on the weapon. Then he shot forward at full thrust.

  When he and Han had first escaped from the Maw cluster, Daala had thrown all of her fighters at him in a desperate attempt to recapture the Sun Crusher.

  Kyp figured it would take little more than a few potshots to give her the incentive to stay around.

  Admiral Daala raised her right hand, looking at the navigator. “Prepare to engage hyperdrive,” she said.

  “Admiral!” the lieutenant at the sensor station cried. “I’ve detected an intruder!”

  A tiny ship streaked across the bow of the Gorgon, blasting at them with puny laser strikes.

  “What?” Daala said, turning. “Viewscreen,” she called, “Enhance.”

  A shimmering image of Captain Mullinore from the Basilisk appeared at the comm station beside her. “Admiral, we have just detected the Sun Crusher,” he said. “Shall we engage?”

  “The Sun Crusher!” Daala took a second to accept the information. She could not answer before the small ship flitted in front of the Gorgon’s bridge tower again, blasting at the turbolaser batteries. She instantly recognized the thorn-shaped ship, the tiny superweapon bristling with defensive laser turrets. But the Sun Crusher’s lasers had too little power to cause damage to a Star Destroyer.

  “Launch two TIE squadrons,” Daala said, feeling a new excitement. “I want the Sun Crusher recaptured. This changes everything in our strategy against the New Republic.”

  The stormtroopers, already keyed up from a day’s worth of red-alert status, swarmed across the decks. Moments later the bottom bay of the Gorgon opened and spewed out a hundred plane-winged TIE fighters soaring through the curling gas of the nebula.

  Daala watched the small battle unfold. The Sun Crusher had been designed to be extremely swift and maneuverable. With its indestructible quantum armor, the superweapon seemed to laugh at the attack she sent against it. It was only a matter of time, though.

  “But why does he attack us at all?” Daala said, tapping black-gloved fingers on the bridge railing. “Something’s wrong here. He provoked us, but he has no way of causing us damage. Why did he call attention to himself,” she mused, “and how did he find us here?”

  Commander Kratas answered her, though she had been muttering to herself. “I can’t speculate on that, Admiral.”

  “Bring the Star Destroyers about,” she said. “Lock a tractor beam on the Sun Crusher next time it passes.”

  “The Sun Crusher’s pilot is maneuvering at speeds much too high for us to be certain of a firm lock,” Kratas said.

  Daala glared at him. “Does that mean you’re unable to try?”

  “No, Admiral.” Kratas turned and clapped his hands, directing the tactical officers on the bridge. “You heard the Admiral! Set to it immediately.”

  “Admiral, the Sun Crusher is signaling us,” the comm officer said. “Voice-only transmission.”

  Daala whirled. “Put the pilot on.”

  With a crackle the thin voice of a mere boy echoed through the Gorgon’s command center. “Admiral Daala, I’m Kyp Durron—remember me? I hope so. You put me under a death sentence. That made quite an impression on me. I hope it made some sort of impression on you.”

  Daala recalled the wiry, dark-haired youth who had been taken prisoner along with the Rebels who had blundered into the Maw Installation. She motioned for the comm officer to open a channel.

  “Kyp Durron, if you surrender immediately and deliver the Sun Crusher intact, we will take you to the planet of your choice. You can be free. Don’t be foolish.”

  “Not a chance, Admiral.” Kyp laughed at her. “I’m thumbing my nose at your supposed Imperial superiority. I’ll take my chances.” He cut off the transmission and streaked by again, firing darts of laser energy that bounced harmlessly off the shielded hull of the Star Destroyer.

  “Tractor-beam lock—” the tactical officer said, “… lost it.”

  “Admiral!” the sensor chief broke in, his voice filled with urgency. “I’m picking up unusual readings from the star cluster. The blue giants are fluctuating, all seven of them, I’ve never seen anything like—”

  Daala froze. Her mouth dropped open in horror as she suddenly realized the terrible plan this … this boy had put into effect against her fleet.

  “Full about!” she shouted. “One hundred eighty degrees, maximum speed. Get out of the nebula, now!”

  “But, Admiral—?” Commander Kratas said.

  “He’s used the Sun Crusher!” she screamed. “The stars are going to explode! He’s just trying to stall us here so we’ll be trapped.”

  Kratas scrambled to the navigation station himself. The Gorgon lurched as the sublight engines kicked in, spinning the enormous Star Destroyer about.

  “We no longer have our navicomputer lock on Coruscant,” the navigation officer said. “When we turned to strike at the Sun Crusher, we lost our alignment.”

  “Get us out of here now,” Daala said. “Any vector! Inform the Basilisk.”

  The sublight engines powered up, blasting as they lumbered away from the center of the nebula, picking up speed. The hyperdrive engines were primed, gathering power. The Star Destroyers began to move away—

  Then all the stars exploded.

  Kyp Durron watched the Star Destroyers wheel about and flee like wounded banthas.

  “You can’t get away fast enough.” He smiled. “Not fast enough.”

  The Gorgon and the Basilisk began to heave themselves through the nebula at top speed, abandoning scores of TIE fighters. The small Imperial fighters veered off in a panic when their mother ships suddenly turned to run.

  Kyp ignored the rest of the TIE fighters and punched his engines to twice the Sun Crusher’s maximum-rated capacity, shooting straight up and out the plane of the nebular cloud.

  When the cluster of blue giants detonated, concentric shock waves of blinding light and searing radiation blasted outward like a cosmic hurricane.

  The Gorgon had managed to pull two ship lengths ahead of the Basilisk.

  Hauling on the controls, Kyp continued the Sun Crusher’s race upward, confident that the quantum armor would protect him from the worst. The incredible surge of energy from the supernovas darkened his viewports to near opacity.

  Curtains of fire overtook the Basilisk, washing over the Star Destroyer and igniting it like another tiny nova erupting in the nebula, as the firestorm front swept on.

  The viewscreen blackened, but where the Gorgon had been Kyp saw another flash—and then the firestorm obliterated all detail.

  After his screens opaqued completely, Kyp used the onboard navicomputer to set a new course. This was just the beginning.

  Leaving the galactic inferno behind him, and awed by the power of the Sun Crusher, Kyp moved off to seek out those remaining worlds that still swore allegiance to the Empire.

  Now, without doubt, he had all the power he needed.

  34

  With the morning coolness of Yavin 4, Ambassador Cilghal rose in her austere quarters and basked in the shadowy dampness of the stone temple.

  She had been at the Jedi praxeum for only a few days, but already she felt as if the whole universe had opened for her. Master Skywalker’s exercises in attuning her
mind to the Force had shown her how to turn her gaze in a new direction, to see things in full view that she had previously only glimpsed out of the corners of her eyes. He had given her a nudge down a long, smooth slope of discovery; the more she learned, the easier it was to learn more.

  She splashed tepid water across her face, moistening her rubbery skin, scrubbing the delicate tendrils that hung beneath her slit of a mouth. Though the air of the jungle moon was thick with humidity, she still felt more comfortable when she could keep her exposed skin moist.

  Cilghal left her quarters and moved to join the dozen other Jedi candidates in the dining hall, where each would consume a small breakfast of fruits or meats compatible with his or her biochemistry.

  Dorsk 81 sat at a table contemplating colored rectangles of processed nutrients. Because he had lived for so long on a self-contained, environmentally controlled world, the cloned Jedi trainee could not digest foods that had not been heavily processed.

  The gaunt, hardened Jedi Kam Solusar attempted to talk to wild-haired Streen, who kept flicking his gaze from side to side as if distracted.

  The rest of the Jedi trainees sat by themselves or in small groups, talking uneasily. Cilghal did not see Master Skywalker among them. He was usually the first to enter the dining hall, waiting for his students to join him. The other Jedi trainees seemed disconcerted by the change of routine.

  Cilghal worked the food-processing unit to prepare a breakfast of diced smoked fish and a pungent-tasting grain mash she enjoyed. Finally she asked the students in general, “Where is Master Skywalker?”

  The trainees looked at each other as if they had been wanting to ask the same question.

  Streen stood up and looked around in alarm. “It’s too quiet,” he said. “Too quiet. I wanted it quiet, but this is too much. I can’t hear Master Skywalker. I could always sense voices in my head. I hear all of yours. It’s too quiet.” He sat down again as if embarrassed. “Too quiet.”

  Tionne rushed into the dining hall, clutching her twin-boxed musical instrument. Her silvery hair streamed behind her in a wild mass, and her pearly eyes were wide and panic-stricken. “Come quickly! I’ve found Master Skywalker.”

  Without question, without confusion, all the Jedi trainees rose in a coordinated, flowing movement. They moved together and sprinted after Tionne as she ran down the winding moss-grown halls. Cilghal attempted to keep up with the more athletic members, such as Kirana Ti and Tionne.

  They ran through the echoing grand audience chamber where vines covered the walls and the long polished seats stood empty in shafts of sunlight.

  “This way,” Tionne said. “I don’t know what’s happened to him.”

  They reached a back staircase of worn stone steps that led to the observation platform at the top of the ziggurat.

  Cilghal drew up short as she noticed the robed figure sprawled on the flagstones under the sky. His hands were thrown back as if to defend against something.

  “Master Skywalker!” she called. The other trainees rushed forward. Cilghal pushed through the gathered students and knelt beside the fallen man.

  Luke’s face seemed curdled in an outcry of pain or fear. His eyes were squeezed shut, his lips were curled back in a grimace.

  On the stone floor beside him lay his lightsaber, as if it had proved useless against whatever enemy he had fought.

  Cilghal propped Luke’s head up, touching his pale-brown hair. Rivulets of cold sweat glistened on his face, but she felt no warmth on his skin. She probed, using her newfound abilities in the Force, desperately searching.

  “What happened to him?” Dorsk 81 said in great alarm.

  “Is he alive?” Streen asked. “I can’t hear him.”

  Cilghal probed with her sensing abilities and shook her orange and muddy-green head. “He’s breathing. I can sense very little heartbeat, just the faintest pulse. But I can’t find him inside. When I touch him with the Force, all I find is a great empty spot.…”

  She turned to look at the others with her sad round Calamarian eyes. “It’s as if he has left us.”

  “What can we do?” Kirana Ti asked.

  Cilghal cradled Luke’s motionless head in her lap and blinked her huge Calamarian eyes, unable to speak for a long moment.

  “We are all alone now,” she finally said.

  About the Author

  Kevin J. Anderson is the author of nearly 100 novels, 48 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 22 million books in print in thirty languages. He has won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, the SFX Reader’s Choice Award, and New York Times Notable Book.

  Anderson has coauthored eleven books in the Dune saga with Brian Herbert, as well as the new original novel, Hellhole. Anderson’s popular epic SF series, The Saga of Seven Suns, is his most ambitious work, and he has completed a sweeping fantasy trilogy, Terra Incognita, about sailing ships, sea monsters, and the crusades. As an innovative companion project to Terra Incognita, Anderson cowrote (with wife Rebecca Moesta) the lyrics for two ambitious rock CDs based on the novels. Performed by the supergroup Roswell Six for ProgRock Records, the two CDs feature performances by rock legends from Kansas, Dream Theater, Asia, Saga, Rocket Scientists, Shadow Gallery, and others.

  His novel Enemies & Allies chronicles the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s; Anderson also wrote The Last Days of Krypton. He has written numerous Star Wars projects, including the Jedi Academy trilogy, the Young Jedi Knights series (with Moesta), and Tales of the Jedi comics from Dark Horse. Fans might also know him from his X-Files novels or Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son.

  By KEVIN J. ANDERSON

  Star Wars:

  The Jedi Academy Trilogy

  Darksaber

  Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (editor)

  Tales from Jabba’s Palace (editor)

  Tales of the Bounty Hunters (editor)

  The Young Jedi Knights series (with Rebecca Moesta)

  Dune series (with Brian Herbert)

  The Prelude to Dune trilogy

  The Legends of Dune trilogy

  The Road to Dune

  Hunters of Dune

  Sandworms of Dune

  Paul of Dune

  The Winds of Dune

  The Sisterhood of Dune

  X-Files:

  Ground Zero

  Ruins

  Antibodies

  DC Universe:

  The Last Days of Krypton

  Enemies & Allies

  Original Novels:

  The Saga of Seven Suns series

  The Terra Incognita trilogy

  Hellhole (with Brian Herbert)

  The Star Challengers series (with Rebecca Moesta)

  The Crystal Doors trilogy (with Rebecca Moesta)

  Frankenstein: Prodigal Son (with Dean Koontz)

  Captain Nemo

  The Martian War

  Hopscotch

  Blindfold

  Resurrection, Inc.

  Climbing Olympus

  Ill Wind (with Doug Beason)

  Ignition (with Doug Beason)

  Assemblers of Infinity (with Doug Beason)

  The Trinity Paradox (with Doug Beason)

  Virtual Destruction (with Doug Beason)

  Fallout (with Doug Beason)

  Lethal Exposure (with Doug Beason)

  Landscapes (collection)

  Dogged Persistence (collection)

  Blood Lite (editor)

  Blood Lite II: Overbite (editor)

  Blood Lite III: Aftertaste (editor)

  STAR WARS—The Expanded Universe

  You saw the movies. You watched the cartoon series, or maybe played some of the video games. But did you know …

  In The Empire Strikes Back, Princess Leia Organa said to Han Solo, “I love you.” Han said, “I know.” But did you know that they actually got married? And had three Jedi children: the twins, Jacen and Jaina, and a younger son, Anakin?

  Luke
Skywalker was trained as a Jedi by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. But did you know that, years later, he went on to revive the Jedi Order and its commitment to defending the galaxy from evil and injustice?

  Obi-Wan said to Luke, “For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.” Did you know that over those millennia, legendary Jedi and infamous Sith Lords were adding their names to the annals of Republic history?

  Yoda explained that the dreaded Sith tend to come in twos: “Always two, there are. No more, no less. A Master, and an apprentice.” But did you know that the Sith didn’t always exist in pairs? That at one time in the ancient Republic there were as many Sith as Jedi, until a Sith Lord named Darth Bane was the lone survivor of a great Sith war and created the “Rule of Two”?

  All this and much, much more is brought to life in the many novels and comics of the Star Wars expanded universe. You’ve seen the movies and watched the cartoon. Now venture out into the wider worlds of Star Wars!

  Turn the page or jump to the timeline of Star Wars novels to learn more.

  1

  The Sun Crusher plunged into the Caridan system like an assassin’s knife into an unsuspecting heart.

  Old beyond his years, Kyp Durron sat hunched over the controls with dark eyes blazing, intent on his new target. With the might of the superweapon—as well as powerful techniques his spectral mentor Exar Kun had taught him—Kyp would extinguish all threats against the New Republic.

  Only days before, he had annihilated Admiral Daala and her two Star Destroyers in the Cauldron Nebula. On the fringes of the explosion, he had dropped off one of the Sun Crusher’s coffin-sized message pods so that the galaxy would know who was responsible for the victory.

  As his next target, Kyp would challenge the Imperial military training center on Carida.

  The military planet was a largish world with high gravity to toughen the muscles of potential stormtroopers. Its untamed land masses provided an appropriate range of training environments: arctic wastelands, trackless rain forests, splintered mountain crags, and searing desert hardpan crawling with venomous multilegged reptiles.