Jedi Search

by Kevin J. Anderson

  frowned. "How would anybody know to transmit that? How would anybody even

  know the Falcon's private code?"

  Then Han Solo's angry voice burst over the speaker. "Whoever is on the

  Falcon better have a damned good reason for flying my ship!"

  "Han! Is that you?" Lando said. A sudden thrill surged through Luke.

  "Lando?" Han said after a pause. Over the speakers Chewbacca's roar drowned

  out Han's own exclamation. "What are you doing here?"

  In space around them, blinding lances of light flashed as the weapons of two

  fleets were brought to bear. Like rival krayt dragons in mating season, the

  Kessel and Imperial forces slammed into each other in a total free-for-all

  space brawl.

  "Han, listen to me. Luke is here, too," Lando said. "We've got to get away

  from Kessel, but the Falcon's navicomputer is disabled. We can't make the

  jump into hyperspace."

  An explosion rocked them from the starboard side, but most of the Kessel

  fighters concentrated their firepower on the much larger threat of Daala's

  Imperial fleet. Though hopelessly outmatched, the three Carrack cruisers

  lined up and began to blast the Basilisk.

  Over the private comm channel Han spoke to someone else behind him, then

  answered Lando. "We can dump the coordinates to your navicomp, and we'll fly

  tandem back to Coruscant."

  Lando checked the computer, saw the numbers scrolling through, and raised a

  fist in triumph. "Got it! Artoo, get ready to go."

  "You'd better keep my ship safe, Lando," Han said. "On my signal."

  "You have my word, Han." Lando's hands flew over the Falcon's familiar

  controls.

  "Ready to enter hyperspace!" Han said.

  The Kessel forces flanked and attacked the far larger Star Destroyers,

  pummeling the Imperial ships with blasts from their ion cannons and

  turbolaser banks. But the Star Destroyers disgorged their own squadrons of

  TIE fighters to butcher the unregimented forces from Kessel.

  "On your mark, Han!"

  "Punch it!"

  The last thing they saw was Kessel's massive Loronar strike cruiser

  exploding under the concerted fire from the Manticore and the Gorgon. They

  watched the flaming hulk reel and ram into the Star Destroyer Basilisk,

  causing the bottom of the arrowhead hull to buckle and burn.

  Then the universe filled with starlines.

  The reunion was everything Han had imagined. He had spent a lot of time

  thinking about it during the long hyperspace flight back to Coruscant.

  Leia and the twins met him the moment the Sun Crusher and the Millennium

  Falcon touched down side by side at the high landing platform. Han backed

  out of the Sun Crusher's hatch and began climbing down the ladder, but Leia

  ran forward and hugged him before he managed to get all the way down.

  "Glad I'm back?" he asked.

  "I missed you!" she said, kissing him.

  "I know," he said with a roguish smile.

  She put her hands on her hips. "What? You didn't miss me?"

  Han turned away sheepishly. "Well, first we crashed on Kessel, then we were

  stuck in the spice mines, then we got captured by a bunch of Imperials in

  the middle of a black hole cluster. I really didn't have a whole lot of--'

  When Leia looked as if she were going to punch him, Han reacted with a grin.

  "But even through all that I don't remember more than about two seconds when

  I didn't miss you with all my heart."

  Leia kissed him again.

  Artoo trundled down the Falcon's ramp, and Threepio bustled to greet him.

  "Artoo-Detoo! I'm so glad you're back. You wouldn't believe the difficulties

  I've had while you were gone!"

  Artoo bleeped something nobody bothered to translate.

  Kyp Durron and Qwi Xux climbed down from the Sun Crusher and stared out at

  the endless spires and towers of Imperial City, the metropolis of glinting

  transparisteel and alloy that stretched to the horizon. Above them the tiny

  lights of shuttles winked across the sky. "Now that's a city!" Kyp said with

  a sigh.

  Qwi looked overwhelmed. The Sun Crusher would be transferred to a

  high-security hangar for study by the scientists of the New Republic.

  Qwi did not like abandoning it, but she had no choice.

  Han strode over to his two children, bending his knees and gathering Jacen

  and Jaina into his arms.

  "Hey, kids! Do you remember your daddy? It's been a long time, huh?"

  He mussed their hair and stared down at them with the wide-eyed astonishment

  he always felt when seeing how much they had grown between the visits Winter

  arranged to the hidden planet of Anoth. Now, though, Jacen and Jaina's two

  years of isolation and protection were over, and the children were home to

  stay, leaving only baby Anakin in need of special protection.

  Jacen nodded; then a moment later Jaina nodded as well. Han wasn't sure he

  believed their answer, but he hugged them anyway. "Well, if you don't

  remember me, I'll try to make it up to you from now on."

  * * *

  A puffed-up official wearing the bright uniform of an offworld

  administrative office finally cornered Lando in a high-brow diplomatic

  lounge. The official held an armored briefcase similar to the type credit

  investigators carried, and he had the same pinch-faced demeanor of a person

  being given a mission whose importance he drastically overestimated.

  "Are you Lando Calrissian?" the official said. "I have been attempting to

  locate you for several days. You've made my job most difficult." He bustled

  forward.

  Lando saw that he could not slip out the back entrance of the lounge. Beside

  him at the table Han raised his eyebrows. Both of them had gone to the

  lounge to relax and settle down after their long debriefings by the Alliance

  High Command.

  Unfortunately, the lounge catered to bureaucrats and political

  functionaries, and served only cloyingly sweet drinks. Han and Lando sipped

  theirs slowly, trying to keep from grimacing.

  Lando had heard rumors about an investigator trying to track him down and

  had managed to avoid him thus far. He feared some debtor coming after him,

  or a complaint regarding the tibanna gas mining operations he had abandoned

  on Bespin or the hot metal mines he had recently lost on Nkllon.

  "Yes, you finally caught me," Lando said with a sigh. "What do you want? I

  can get the best legal representation in the galaxy here in Imperial City."

  "That won't be necessary," the investigator said, heaving his armored

  briefcase onto the table, then fiddling with the cyberlock. "I'll be glad to

  be rid of this."

  He lifted the lid of his case, and glittering light sparkled out. Other

  people in the lounge turned to gape. The briefcase brimmed with carefully

  sorted packets of firefacet gems and shimmering chrysopaz.

  "I am from the planet Dargul, and this is the reward owed to you by the

  Duchess Mistal for the safe return of her beloved consort Dack. You can have

  them appraised, but I am told these jewels are valued at approximately one

  million credits. Plus the briefcase, which is worth another forty."

  Lando stared, hunched over the briefcase and dazzled by its contents. "A

  million?
" he said.

  "A million, plus forty for the briefcase."

  "But I was only supposed to get half of the reward."

  The investigator reached into his pocket. "I neglected to give you this. It

  is a message wafer for you from Slish Fondine, the owner of the blob stables

  where you assisted apprehending our consort Dack." He handed Lando a small

  rectangular object.

  Lando turned it over in his hand, frowning, then ran his fingernail along

  the crease in its center. He cracked the message wafer open, then folded the

  two halves back to stand it upright on their small table.

  An image of the blob-stable owner wafted up. "Greetings, Lando Calrissian.

  Since you are listening to this message, I will assume you've received your

  reward. I'm happy to say that your suggestion of not executing the criminal

  Tymmo has proved advantageous to all concerned. Duchess Mistal was so

  delighted to receive her consort back that she insisted on paying you the

  full reward, as well as offering to build a subsidiary blobstacle course for

  me in the main stadium on Umgul. We are already hiring creative engineers to

  design even tougher blobstacles for the new course, which, at the Duchess

  Mistal's request, will be called the "Dack Track."

  "I am forwarding these firefacet and chrysopaz gems to you and hope you will

  spend the reward wisely. Why not come to Umgul and do some gambling? I'd be

  happy to be your host."

  As the message dissolved into wisps of light, Lando could do little more

  than stare open-mouthed at his fortune.

  Han laughed, then gestured for the short investigator to sit down. "Join us

  for a drink. In fact, here--you can have mine! It's too sweet for me

  anyway."

  The investigator shook his head, the hard expression remaining on his face.

  "No, thank you. I don't think I would enjoy that. I'd rather get back to my

  work." With that the investigator left the lounge.

  Han clapped Lando on the shoulder. "What are you going to do with all that

  money? Still thinking of investing it in spice mining?"

  Lando came back to reality with a streak of defensiveness. "I hate to say

  this, but when Moruth Doole showed us around, I was rather impressed by the

  potential there. Spice has plenty of good uses, too--perfectly legitimate

  alternatives in psychological therapy, criminal investigation, communication

  with alien races, even artistic inspiration and entertainment. You knew

  that, Han, or you wouldn't have run spice yourself in the old days."

  "You've got a point, Lando."

  But Lando's imagination kept working on the problem. "I don't see why the

  spice mines have to be run as some sort of slave-lord operation. A lot of

  that could be automated. Even if there are more of those energy spiders

  running around, we could just use super-cooled droids down in the deeper

  tunnels. No big investment. I don't see what the problem is."

  Han looked at him skeptically, took a gulp of his sweet drink, then puckered

  his lips. "Uh-huh."

  "Besides," Lando said, "I'm in the market for a new ship. I had to leave the

  Lady Luck stranded on Kessel. I may never get her back. What am I supposed

  to do for the time being?"

  Seeing the eager stares from the others in the lounge, Lando snapped shut

  the lid of the armored briefcase. "Well, anyway, it's wonderful just to be

  solvent again!"

  "Everybody in!" Wedge Antilles called inside the echoing Imperial City

  spaceport. "Let's get ready to go."

  The last of the New Republic colonization specialists, sociologists, and

  survival instructors hauled their personal packs up the ramp of the medium

  transport. The ninety-meter-long ship occupied the better part of an entire

  bay in the supply sector, but the group needed a transport large enough to

  haul the Eol Sha survivors and their meager possessions, as well as the

  supplies necessary to set up a new home on Dantooine.

  Wedge kept track of the final details of the operation, skimming a checklist

  on his datapad. At least this was a better assignment than knocking down

  ruined buildings--for the time being. He was glad to be flying again, even

  if it was only a sluggish transport carrier instead of a fighter.

  But he knew tougher assignments lay in the near future. Admiral Daala and

  her three Imperial Star Destroyers had devastated the Kessel system, then

  vanished into hyperspace. The New Republic had sent its best trackers to

  find where she had gone to hide. Han insisted she was bound to make

  destructive guerrilla strikes, popping out of hyperspace and blasting a

  random planet. A loose cannon like Daala would not follow a predictable

  overall strategy. The entire New Republic had to be on its guard.

  Chewbacca insisted that a New Republic occupation force head out to the Maw

  Installation to free the other Wookiee slaves. The Alliance High Command

  also wanted to get their hands on any other plans and prototypes remaining

  in the secret weapons lab. So much for relaxing and picking up pieces, Wedge

  thought. Things are going to get a lot more interesting.

  But right now his assignment was to get the people of Eol Sha to safety on

  their new homeworld.

  When everything checked out onboard, Wedge noticed Gantoris standing alone

  beside supply containers piled next to the wall. The displaced colony leader

  looked tall and powerful, but didn't seem to know how to react to seeing the

  relocation ship leave.

  "Don't worry," Wedge called, "we'll take your people to their new home.

  After living with volcanoes and earthquakes all their lives, Dantooine will

  seem like a paradise to them."

  Gantoris nodded, furrowing his smooth forehead. "Give them my greetings."

  Wedge waved to him. "You just go and become the best of the new Jedi

  Knights."

  Luke looked deep into the eyes of Kyp Durron, searching for the core of a

  Jedi. The younger man flinched but continued to meet Luke's gaze.

  "Are you nervous, Kyp?" Luke asked.

  "A little. Should I be?"

  Luke smiled as he remembered boasting to Yoda that he wasn't afraid of his

  impending Jedi training. "You will be," Yoda had said, "you will be!"

  Han interrupted them, clapping his hand on Kyp's shoulder. "You should have

  been there to watch him zipping through the dark spice tunnels. And he

  navigated us right through the Maw with his eyes closed! This kid has a lot

  of potential, Luke."

  Luke nodded. "I was about to do that trick in the Maw myself. I know how

  difficult it must have been."

  "Does that mean you'll take me for your Jedi academy?" Kyp asked. "I want to

  know how to use this power I have. While I was sitting in a cell on the Star

  Destroyer, I vowed never to be helpless again."

  Luke withdrew the power pack and sheet-crystal sensor paddles from the old

  Imperial scanner that had once been used to detect Jedi descendants. "Let's

  try this scanner first."

  Untangling the cords, Luke stretched out the sheet-crystal paddles on either

  side of Kyp. "This won't hurt or anything. It just maps the potential of

  your senses."

  He tripped the scan switch on the control pack, and a narrow line of copper
y

  light traveled down Kyp's body as a smaller image of the copper scan-line

  reappeared in reverse motion in front of them, digitizing its analysis of

  Kyp Durron.

  Kyp's reproduction hung in the air, bathed with the pale-blue corona Luke

  had found on the others with genuine Jedi potential. But the aura waxed and

  waned, knotting itself, turning darker, growing brighter, streaked with red,

  then becoming tangled.

  "What does that mean?" Kyp said.

  "He's okay, isn't he?" Han seemed eager to have his protégé accepted.

  Luke wondered at the anomalous mapping, disturbed because he didn't know how

  to interpret it. The shimmer could be a result of faulty scanning equipment,

  since the instrument had been roughly treated and could no longer be

  calibrated--or it could be that because of the strain and pressure on Kyp

  for so many years, he hadn't quite sprung back to his full potential yet.

  "I see a lot of power there. A lot," Luke said, and Kyp sighed at the

  reassurance. "Let me try one other test."

  Luke stretched out his hands to touch the curly black hair on Kyp's head.

  "Let him do what he needs to," Han whispered to the young man. "Trust him."

  Luke closed his eyes and sent a tendril of thought to the back of Kyp's mind