over here--fluttering, kind of. Maybe it was just a bird or a plume of dust, I
don't know."
Tenel Ka bent low and circled the rock.
"Ah. Aha," she said. She reached beneath the edge and pulled.
"Lowbacca, my friend--?" she began, but before she could finish her
request, Lowie had already lifted the slab of rock high overhead and tossed it
aside down the steep edge inside the crater.
Tenel Ka straightened. In her hand she held a long piece of cloth, a sash,
sewn from alternating strips of yellow, purple, red, and orange fabric."The
colors of the House of Thul," she said matter-of-factly.
"Raynar's mother also wore such a sash."
"Why, bless me," Em Teedee exclaimed.
He was viewing the scene from a perspective that none of the others had.
"Does the House of Thul also place inscriptions on its clothing?"
"Not that I've ever noticed," Jacen said, wondering what the little droid
was getting at.
"May I see that?" Jaina asked. Tenel Ka handed her the sash.
Jaina grasped the material with one hand near each end and stretched it out
straight. She scanned the sash, then flipped it over.
"Look!"
Jacen moved closer. Sure enough, there on the yellow band of material
scratched in faint gray letters was a message.
"Danger," it said. "If I am caught, all humans in mortal danger. Thul."
"Gracious me!" Em Teedee exclaimed.
"If this warning is genuine, then I do hope Master Thul is safe.
If not, we're doomed!"
UNDER THE HAZY midmorning sunshine of Kuar, Jacen stood with the other
young Jedi Knights outside the Rock Dragon. They talked earnestly, waiting until
all ideas had been discussed to make their decision. It reminded Jacen of those
political meetings his mother always complained about... but now he saw the
necessity for careful planning. Considering the ominous message on the sash, he
and Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie needed to be certain their next step in the quest
to find Raynar's father was a prudent one.
"Well, we know he came here," Jacen said, "and had some kind of important
meeting, then left that warning written on his sash."
Tenel Ka nodded, her warrior braids swinging like red-gold chains. "Yes,
and the business Bornan Thul transacted must be connected with his
disappearance."
Jaina paced on the weathered ground.
"But what was it? And why did they come to this planet? Is Kuar just an
out-of-the-way meeting placemor was there some connection to the ancient
Mandalorians?"
Jacen rubbed his hands together and grinned eagerly. "Hey, I think we
should explore those ruins some more. There's plenty of places we haven't looked
into. Who knows what clues we might still find?"
Lowie growled, his fur ruffling. Em Teedee translated. "Yes indeed--and who
knows what vicious creatures we might find?"
Jacen bobbed his head, still grinning.
"Yeah, just think?
Holding on to the thick rusted chains, careful to avoid the broken
staircases and treacherous ramps, the young Jedi Knights made their way down the
cliff wall into the stadium. Out in the hazy distance, clouds of dust hung like
brown soup in the air.
The bowl-shaped crater had once been the home of towering buildings, a
crowded and sheltered city. Later, the Mandalorians had turned the entire crater
into a fighting arena. Now, though, the forgotten metropolis lay abandoned and
decaying, filled with thousands upon thousands of years of unrecorded history.
The companions worked their way along open galleries gouged into the cliff.
Tenel Ka pointed out that the Mandalorians had allowed spectators to watch
violent gladiatorial combats from such galleries.
But it looked as if no spectator had sat in these stands for half the age
of the galaxy, and the Mandalorian warriors who had once made their homes here
had long since moved on in their endless nomadic conquests.
In the shadowed interiors of alcoves and stadium rooms, Jacen marveled at
the immense outgrowths of shelf fungus, colored pale pink and lavender and
peach; some mushrooms formed circular platforms, while others rose up in conical
spikes like stalagmites. Centipedelike insects burrowed through the foamy flesh
of the fungus, making miniature warrens.
Jaina studied the scuffed dust around their feet. "Looks like something
moved through here not long ago."
Jacen perked up. "Do you think it might have been Raynar's father--or
whoever he was meeting here?"
"This is difficult to determine. The prints are blurred," Tenel Ka said,
bending down.
"The tracks could be human... or some other creature. We must be cautious."
"You're always cautious, Tenel Ka," Jacen said. "It's one of the things I
like about you."
"There's certainly a great deal to be said for being cautious, Master Jacen
Em Teedee intoned.
Jaina turned her glowrod toward an arched opening to a passage that led
deeper into the cliffside. "This looks like a main tunnel," she said. Her light
splashed on a fallen pillar and rooms filled with crumbling rock from collapsed
ceilings and walls.
The scuffed tracks led deeper into the tunnel, and Jacen scratched his
tousled brown hair, trying to imagine why Bornan Thul would have gone inside
this chamber.
Had some precious artifact been hidden here, away from prying eyes? What
was he after, and why would it spell doom for all humans if he was caught with
it?
Inside the passage, shadows clung to them like a blanket soaked in oil.
They pushed onward, clustering close to Jaina's glowrod. "Master Lowbacca," Em
Teedee said, "would you be so kind as to reposition me?
I'm afraid my optical sensors are picking up nothing more than the rock
wall of the tunnel. From this angle I can't even add to the level of
illumination in here."
Lowbacca sniffed the sluggish, stale air, growled low in his throat, and
reached down to move Em Teedee to a better position on his syren-fiber belt.
"I will provide us with more light as well," Tenel Ka said. She removed her
lightsaber and gripped its intricately carved bone-white handle. She pushed the
power stud, and her brilliant turquoise energy beam flashed out like a javelin
made of light, dazzling them all.
Just then the monster struck.
The creature charged toward them, a huge battering ram of spined legs,
jointed footpads, an armored body core, and fangs... many fangs. The thing
seemed as large as an Imperial scout walker.
"Oh, do look out!" Em Teedee said.
Tenel Ka leaped in front of the beast as the other young Jedi Knights fell
back, scrambling for their lightsabers.
Jacen tried to focus his dazzled eyes as the glistening creature thundered
forward.
A bone-jarring roar emanated from a gullet deep behind its clacking jaws.
The monster was spiderlike and enormous; spines like wicked thorns sprouted from
every joint. Its body core was crimson, splotched with a jagged marking on its
back that looked like a death's-head.
Jacen recognized the creature. "I think that's a combat arac
hnid," he said.
"They're very rare and very deadly. I never thought I'd get to see one."
"Aren't we lucky," Jaina said. She drew her own lightsaber, but Tenel Ka
was bearing the brunt of the creature's attention.
The warrior girl held her lightsaber up-fight, her jaw set, her face grim.
She swept the blade back and forth, ripping a gash of light through the air.
"Stay back!" she snarled.
The monster reached out with a long clawed foreleg, trying to grab Tenel
Ka, but she slashed low, slicing off its footpad. The creature bellowed and
reared back, jab bing its spined legs at her like an armful of lances. Slashing
again, the warrior girl drove in and severed another of its many legs.
Lowbacca ignited his molten bronze light-saber with a roar of challenge,
and stepped forward.
"Do we have to kill it?" Jacen said, trying to think of an alternative.
Drool slathered the.combat arachnid's grinding jaws, and its many bulbous
eyes looked like black pearls reflecting the lines of light that danced over its
polished exoskeleton.
Jaina said,?This is one creature you're not taking home as a pet, Jacen."
Reluctantly lighting his emerald-green lightsaber, he stood ready to fight
beside his friends.
Teeth bared, Lowbacca planted himself next to Tenel Ka, swinging his
lightsaber like a club. He nipped off several sharp spines that rose from the
combat arachnid's back, but one of the creature's fore-limbs flashed out and
tore into his fur, making the young Wookiee stagger back ward.
Lowbacca?" Em Teedee scolded. Lowie roared in pain as he looked at the
shallow wound along his rib cage.
Jaina chopped away another flailing leg, but the combat arachnid had too
many limbs--and now it was angered and in pain. The beast pressed them back,
trapping them between a pile of fallen rock and the wall.
"Uh-oh, looks like we can't get out," Jacen said. He stood in front of his
sister, his green lightsaber held high, but the combat arachnid swatted him
aside, knocking him into Tenel Ka. In the instant the warrior girl lost her
balance, the creature struck. It grabbed Tenel Ka and lifted her up into the
air, ready to kill her.
"No!" Jacen cried. "Tenel Ka!" He tried to reach the monsters mind through
the Force, but the creature reared up and trumpeted a challenge.
Bellowing, Lowie charged into the fray.
The enraged combat arachnid knocked him backward, its spined limbs jabbing
like sharp spears in every direction. Its jaws clucked together, ready to shred
flesh from Tenel Ka's bones.
Jacen didn't think he could attack in time to save his friend. The creature
was too powerful. It could sustain a great deal of damage and many more wounds
before it suffered a mortal injury. Jacen drew a deep breath, determined to
attack anyway.
Just then, Jacen saw a movement in the opening out into the sunlight. A
tall hairy silhouette appeared. It let out a deep-throated, yet somehow
melodious, Wookiee roar and fired a powerful blaster rifle. The dazzling energy
bolt splashed across the combat arachnid's lower set of eyes; another blast
followed, and a third struck the remaining eyes on the spider creature.
The combat arachnid's thick shell was too strong to be split open by a mere
hand weapon, but the creature hissed and flailed.
With a shuddering spasm it dropped Tenel Ka and backed up against the wall,
its jointed forelimbs writhing and clawing at its eyes.
The female Wookiee voice growled, and Jacen, who was closest, could hear
enough of the words to understand the message with his meager grasp of the
Wookiee language.
"It's temporarily blinded," he translated.
"We've got to get out of here before it recovers and attacks us again."
"No argument from me," Jaina said, picking herself up. Lowie, pressing a
hairy paw to his injured side, staggered away from the battleground. His hand
rapidly became covered with blood.
Jacen helped a stunned but otherwise uninjured Tenel Ka to stand, pulling
her arm around his shoulder so that he could walk outside with her.
As they returned to the wan sunlight, Jacen got a good look at the tall
chocolate-brown Wookiee, a female wearing a tattered weapons belt to which were
clipped many sonic grenades and thermal detonators.
Lowbacca stopped and stared at her, absolutely stricken. He groaned. Jacen
could tell that Lowie had said no actual words: he had merely voiced an
expression of amazement and disbelief.
The female Wookiee spoke again, and Em Teedee bleeped in surprise,
recognizing the name. "Raabakyysh? Master Lowbacca are you saying that this is
your deceased Wookiee friend from Kashyyyk--the one who disappeared in the
deepest levels of the forest?"
Jacen gasped. "Blaster bolts! This is Raaba? You mean she's not dead after
all? How did you escape?"
"Uh, can we talk about it later?" Jaina urged, throwing a glance over her
shoulder.
With a noncommital grunt, the female Wookiee gestured for them to hurry.
They ran after her, knowing there would be time for questions, many questions,
after they were safe.
Once the combat arachnid was a good distance behind them, Jacen let himself
become engrossed in speculation about what had happened to Lowbacca's dear
friend and where she had been for all this time.
IN HER PRIVATE chambers connected to the throne-room grotto, Nolaa Tarkona
sat at a long polished table carved out of lava rock. Though the day outside was
broiling hot in one direction and disastrously cold in the other, the Ryloth
cave warrens remained at a pleasant, constant temperature.
Dimness was an ever-present companion.
Across from her, Adjutant Advisor How rak shuffled his paraphernalia,
preparing for his daily presentation. The Shistavanen wolfman stared at the
electronic datapad on which he kept the most secret records of the Diversity
Alliance. With clawed fingers Hovrak punched buttons, calling up entries in his
encyclopedia of alien species.
Nolaa watched with interest--the records had become an obsession with the
wolf man. Holographic images gelled into focus from his catalog, and the
Adjutant Advisor discussed their progress, referring to the new entries he had
compiled.
The sharp image of a broad-shouldered, long-limbed cyclops rotated to show
the brute's features from 360 degrees. "An Aby-ssin," said Hovrak. "Not very
smart, but violent and brutal. Once trained, they are great fighters. We have
quite a few already in our ranks, and I believe that with a little effort we
could get most of their species to join the Diversity Alliance."
Nolaa nodded, taking in the information as Hovrak called up the next entry.
"Cha'a, a small reptilian species."
She saw a squat creature, its head mounted low on its shoulders as if its
neck had retracted into its spine. The slitted eyes were set wide apart.
Delicate scales covered a sloping head that looked like a snake's.
"Wily, ambitious, untrustworthy--though the Cha'a can be counted on to look
after their own interests."
Nolaa nodded, tapping a claw against her newl
y resharpened teeth.
"Then we must convince them that being loyal to the Diversity Alliance is
in their best interests."
"My thoughts exactly," Hovrak said with a snarl. "Several Cha'a have been
tricked into joining Luke Skywalkers Jedi training center, but I believe most
have no great love for humans and their domination."
Nolaa stroked her one intact head-tail, feeling the tingle of sensations.
She had tattooed designs across the smooth, greenish flesh. The stuttering pain
of the tattoo needles had been excruciating on the intensely sensitive skin of
her brain appendage, every touch of the ink-filled stinger needles a throb of
painful exhilaration, and she had endured it. Few Twi'lek males could tolerate
such prolonged agony and now everyone who saw her tattoos could not help but
admire her endurance. It added to her power.
Nolaa's other head-tail, which had once been so long, so supple, so
beautiful, had been blasted off in the violent battle when she had overthrown
her slave master, killed him and his henchmen, then made her escape.
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