Under A Black Sun Trilogy

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Lando chuckled. "Not exactly, but close. I was hoping to borrow this

  fine crew of young people to visit the place with me before I open it

  to the public. Give me their ideas and opinions, maybe even

  doublecheck things to make sure there aren't any potential hazards our

  engineers have overlooked.

  "See, my buddy Cojahn has two daughters, a twelve-year-old and a

  five-year-old, but I need someone a little older to let me know what

  works for them and what doesn't. Your young Jedi Knights here could

  think of it as a vacation, and it'll help me out as well." He winked

  at Luke. "I promise not to let anyone get kidnapped this time."

  The Jedi Master narrowed his eyes thoughtfully and then nodded.

  "Yes. I think these students could benefit from an opportunity like

  that." Lowie gave an exultant bellow.

  "Good. We'd love to!" Jaina said.

  "We would be honored to assist." Tenel Ka nodded; her red-gold warrior

  braids swung around her serious face. "It will be ... fun."

  "Oh, indeed, Master Lando! I should be most gratified if you'd accept

  my services as well."

  Lando gave a small bow. "You bet, Em Teedee. You can never have

  enough competent droids around on a project like this. I wouldn't

  think of leaving you behind."

  "Hey, speaking of being left behind," Jacen said, "we've got a new

  friend staying here with us at the Jedi academy. Would you mind if she

  came along? She's only been here for a few weeks-she's a former

  smuggler-but she's having kind of a rough time and I think she could

  use a change of scenery."

  "A former smuggler? Sure, bring her along," Lando said with a bright

  smile. "She sounds like my kind of young lady."

  Anja Gallandro finished packing for the trip to Bespin in less than

  five minutes. Slinging her satchel of belongings over one

  shoulder-including the few special items she wanted no one to know

  about-she headed down the temple's ancient stone corridor toward the

  adjoining quarters occupied by the Solo twins.

  She reached up to tighten the leather headband that held her flowing

  hair in check, though just barely enough to keep it out of her face.

  Anja sighed as she thought of Jacen and Jaina. Everyone in the Solo

  family seemed to have an effect on her life, and she found it both

  irritating and unnerving.

  First, Han Solo had murdered her father; then, when Anja had confronted

  him after a lifetime of planning the moment, he had denied it, and

  somehow thwarted all of her attempts to get revenge. Finally, telling

  herself it would be the easiest way to hurt Han Solo, she had followed

  his children to Yavin 4, pretending to be their friend. She had

  believed that as she got to know the twins better, their true

  characters would emerge, and she would find ample reason (and

  opportunity) to inflict some sort of punishment on them. But that

  hadn't turned out as she'd expected either.

  Instead of proving heartless, self-centered, and prideful as she had

  believed they would be, Jacen, Jaina, and their friends at the Jedi

  academy had shown themselves to be helpful, patient, and honorable-even

  in the face of her most withering sarcasm. To make matters worse,

  Jacen had turned out to have an endearing love for animals and a

  quirky, silly sense of humor that Anja had come to find more and more

  pleasant as the days passed.

  She stamped her foot in annoyance outside the door to Jacen's

  chambers.

  How could this be happening? She wanted to hate these young Jedi

  Knights, wanted to find them despicable in every way. Their talk about

  trusting in the Force was a bunch of nonsense. They were trying to

  change her with their talk of control and inner calm. So why didn't

  she despise them?

  Anja couldn't allow herself to become fond of these "friends," she

  reminded herself She needed to get revenge for the death of her father,

  the great Gallandro. She could never allow herself to trust a ... a

  Solo.

  They would probably show their true colors sometime soon.

  Perhaps if she tried goading them a bit more ...

  Squaring her shoulders, Anja raised one fist to knock on Jace's door.

  But before she could do so, Jaina emerged from the next room over.

  "All ready for Cloud City, I see," Jaina observed. "Me too." She

  patted the small duffel she carried. "How about Jacen?"

  "I was about to check," Anja replied in as cold a voice as she could

  muster. "Isn't it obvious?"

  Jaina's brandy-brown eyes blinked at Anja's rudeness, but then she

  shrugged it off and gave a hesitant smile. "Guess I should have

  figured that out, huh?" Then she stepped forward, tapped once lightly

  on the door, and poked her head in without waiting for an answer.

  Anja could see past Jaina into the room to where the tousle-haired

  young man stood in front of a wall filled with cages and aquariums. A

  ball of bright blue fluff sat on his shoulder.

  He turned around and waved his sister and Anja inside. His face lit

  with a quick smile. "Hey, I'm almost done here. I was just setting

  the timers on those new feeding and exercise monitors you designed,

  Jaina.

  Raynar said he'd look in on my menagerie, just in case, and Uncle Luke

  even offered to take care of Nicta," he said, pointing to the feathery

  blue ball perched on his shoulder.

  "We shouldn't keep Calrissian waiting," Anja said gruffly, impatiently,

  though she wasn't the least bit eager to go.

  A rich chuckle came from the doorway. "No, it doesn't pay to keep me

  waiting-unless, of course, you're a beautiful young lady."

  Anja turned to look at the speaker and saw in the arched doorway a

  dashingly handsome man with dark features and a dazzling white smile.

  "Well, hello.... What have we here?" the man said, striding into the

  room. "Two beautiful young ladies?" He took Anja's hand, bowed, and

  kissed it lightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you." He held her hand in

  his and favored her with a brilliant smile.

  She sucked in a quick breath. This man was too smooth and hand some

  for his own good. And she wasn't at all pleased that she felt a slight

  flush of pleasure to be the center of his attention. From the corner

  of her eye she saw Jaina clap a hand over her mouth to suppress a

  giggle.

  "Ummm, Lando Calrissian, this is Anja Gallandro," Jacen said, flushing

  as well. "Anja, meet Lando Calrissian, one of my father's oldest and

  best friends. Lando used to be a pretty big gambler, and he's a former

  smuggler, too."

  At these words Anja stiffened and snatched her hand from Calrissian's

  grasp. Her gaze turned frosty, and her lip curled back in an

  involuntary sneer. "What a shame. I kind of like smugglers. But I've

  always found people who call themselves tonner smugglers to be sort of

  ... self-righteous."

  Rather than being offended, as Anja had hoped, Lando Calrissian raised

  his eyebrows as if he'd found her statement interesting. "Well, we'll

  just have to see if we can't correct that impression," he said. "I'll

  wait for you three down at the Lady L
uck. The others are already

  there."

  He gave an enigmatic nod and left the room with a swirl of his cape.

  As Anja turned back toward the twins, she saw disapproval in Jaina's

  brandy-brown eyes.

  "That was pretty rude."

  Anja blinked at her with feigned innocence. "Oh, really? Was it?"

  Tension crackled in the air between them until Jacen intervened.

  "Lando has been like an uncle to us since we were born. He's risked

  his life more than once for every member of our family. I know it's

  hard for you to trust people, Anja, but Lando's one of the best. Give

  him a chance."

  Jaina pointed out, "After all, he was nice enough to invite you along

  to Bespin, even though he doesn't know you."

  Anja nodded and the tension broke. "Sure. I'll give him a chance."

  "Just try to relax-and try not to insult anyone," Jacen added.

  Jaina grinned the lopsided grin that made her look like her father, Han

  Solo. "Fortunately for you, Lando Calrissian doesn't insult too

  easily."

  Jaina nodded to Lando from the copilot's position in the Lady Luck.

  "Ready for jump to hyperspace."

  "Hang on, everybody," Lando said. He flipped a few switches and the

  twinkling lights outside the front viewport stretched into brilliant

  starlines around them.

  "Too bad we couldn't have brought the Rock Dragon," Jaina said.

  "Or the Lightning Rod," Zekk spoke up from behind her in the crew

  cabin.

  Lowie gave a noncommittal rumble.

  "Come on, now," Lando said, "we didn't need to bring a whole fleet! "

  "It was unnecessary," Tenel Ka agreed.

  "Indeed, and the Lady Luck is certainly quite a fine ship," Em Teedee

  said.

  "And she's big enough for a crew twice this size. Anyhow, I promised

  your families and Luke that I'd keep an eye on all of you. You know,

  not let anything happen. How could I do that if you were off in some

  other ship?" Lando turned his most charming smile on Jaina.

  "Besides, don't tell me it's a hardship to practice your copiloting

  skills in the Lady Luck."

  Jaina laughed. "No, I enjoy flying more than I could possibly enjoy

  any ride in your new amusement park, and you know it."

  Lando's face shone with childish excitement. "I don't know about

  that.

  SkyCenter Galleria is fantastic. I can't wait to show it to you. My

  friend Cojahn and I are sparing no expense in making it the best

  entertainment complex in the galaxy. If you can't find something to

  enjoy in our galleria, you're probably dead. Cojahn's putting

  everything into it.

  He spends every waking hour there. He takes his wife and daughters

  with him at least once a week just to show them the progress."

  "You said he's another former smuggler?" Anja asked from the back of

  the cockpit. "I suppose that means he's respectable, too?"

  "He had a pretty tough time of it up until the past few years, but

  things have really turned around for him. This is his biggest break.

  I tell you, since we started working on this new project I've never

  seen him so happy." He grinned over his shoulder. "You'll like him.

  He's a nice guy ... like me."

  The white metropolis was like an island in the sky, with towers and

  turrets and transparisteel windows that gleamed in the light from

  Bespin's brilliant sun. All around them the soup of clouds swirled in

  a rainbow of pinks and oranges from airborne micro-algae and plankton

  that lived on the winds. A flurry of tiny ships circled like moths

  around the lights of the docking bays.

  "Dazzling," Zekk said.

  "I never get tired of looking at her," Lando said quietly.

  Lowie gave an enthusiastic rumble as the Lady Luck touched down on a

  landing platform on the outskirts of Cloud City. "Goodness, yes!"

  Em Teedee agreed. "It is rather high, isn't it?"

  Cloud City's altitude suited Lowie just fine. Being so high reminded

  him of the great wroshyr trees on his home planet of Kashyyyk. It gave

  him a feeling of home and safety. He was always most comfortable when

  he was up high, and the young Wookiee couldn't wait to get out and

  explore, maybe climb some of the highest towers or just hang out on

  some of the external hover-scaffolding.

  With Em Teedee clipped firmly to his syren-fiber belt, Lowie was the

  first to bound down the Lady Luck's landing ramp. Eager to see the

  view, Lowie strode to the edge of the landing platform to get a better

  look at the layered clouds below.

  Aside from the floating cities, Tibanna gas refineries, and storage

  tanks that drifted in Bespin's atmosphere, the planet had no habitable

  landmasses. The view was exhilarating, and Lowie gave a contented

  sigh. It was so high up! His friends from the Jedi academy joined

  him.

  "Ah," Tenel Ka said. "Aha. An interesting sensation."

  Zekk said, "Whoa-and I thought the trees you liked to climb were

  high!"

  He gave Lowie an admiring look and stepped back from the edge of the

  platform. "I sure wouldn't want to fall."

  "Hey, they've got some neat indigenous animals," Jacen said, pointing

  at a flock of small creatures flying below them in the clouds.

  "Bespin has life-forms different from any place else in the galaxy."

  Anja seemed completely at ease with the height and moved up close

  beside Lowie at the edge of the platform, standing with one hand cocked

  on her hip. "Nice view," she commented.

  As Lando and Jaina emerged after shutting down the Lady Luck's systems,

  a small and somber group of Exex, the city officials, marched across

  the docking platform toward the space yacht. At first Lowie thought it

  might be a small committee to welcome home the former

  Baron-Administrator of Cloud City-but he could sense immediately that

  something was wrong.

  Lando raised a hand in greeting. "Good to be back. How ya doing?" He

  looked at them, perplexed. "This is all the fanfare you could

  manage?"

  But the tiny group of officials converged around Lando and all began

  speaking at once in hushed voices.

  "What? Wait a minute, now! One at a time." Lowie, hearing Lando's

  voice rise in alarm, moved closer so he could hear. His sensitive

  Wookiee ears picked up the words, and he froze as one of the female

  officials spoke in a low firm voice.

  "It's true, sir. I saw him fall myself. The Wing Guard has ruled it a

  suicide. Your partner Cojahn is dead."

  When the young Jedi Knights accompanied Lando into the sprawling

  construction site of his high-tech entertainment complex, Jaina looked

  around in wnazement.

  Once completed, the amusement park would be an imaginary city within

  the floating city, with rides, games, food booths, themed "shopping

  environments," and live-action shows. SkyCenter Galleria would be a

  fabulous vacation spot for sentient creatures of all ages. There was

  no doubt that the high-altitude entertainment center offered fun for

  everyone.

  But the sad news about Cojahn had not left Lando and the young Jedi

  Knights much in the mood for fun.

  Land
o held a small datapad that projected a holographic model of the

  SkyCenter Galleria plans, but he rarely consulted the schematics as he

  walked along through the bustling, confusing construction site. Since

  learningabout the death of his friend and partner, Cloud City's former

  Baron-Administrator seemed to lack enthusiasm for the promising

  investment.

  Lando used his passcard to enter the site's work areas, and his guests

  followed him, curious but also wary around the sparking laser welders

  and the groaning repulser-cranes. Temporary fabric walls and

  force-field windows protected the structures and circuitry from the

  elements.

  "Pretty different from when the New Republic engineers rebuilt the

  Great Temple at the Jedi academy," Jaina said.

  "This is just a bit more modern than a four-thousand-year-old pyramid

  in the jungles," Lando pointed out.

  Tenel Ka peered upward at the girders and levitating scaffolds that

  Ugnaught construction workers were using to build the upper gondolas

  and sweeping tracks of amusement rides. "Impressive," she said.

  "D'you think we could have fun here?" Jacen asked her. "When it's all

  done, I mean."