Under A Black Sun Trilogy
Page 42
helped the young Jedi climb down into the submersible. "And you,
Ambassador," the Yarin said as he helped Cilghal down, "are probably
most familiar with Calamarian oceangoing craft. I trust you will be
able to handle any emergencies that might arise?"
Cilghal gave him a stately nod.
"We'll take good care of your little sub," Zekk assured him. "Does it
have a name?"
The Yarin gave a wheeze that Zekk figured must have been a chuckle and
said, "I call her the Elfa. Among my people, it is a word that means
fish-so-small-that-it-is-not-worth-catching."
"We can't thank you enough, Harbormaster," Cilghal said. "We will take
good care of your Elfa."
The ocean beneath the arctic ice was beautiful. The blue-green glow of
water-filtered daylight transformed every creature, sea plant, or chunk
of ice into a thing of magic. Particulates suspended in the water
sparkled like gold dust. The Elfa was smaller by far than the
Lightning Rod, and less maneuverable because it was in water, but Zekk
enjoyed every moment of piloting it.
"The transponder signal's getting stronger," Anja announced in a ragged
voice. "We're almost to the spice stash." Her breath seemed
labored.
Zekk wondered if she had a fear of enclosed places and disliked the
unusual feeling of being deep under water. Either that, he decided, or
she was going through spice withdrawal again.
"Just let me know if I need to make any course adjustments," Zekk
said.
Over the past two hours, Cilghal had shown him how to use most of the
systems on the tiny submersible, and he now felt as comfortable with
the Elfa as he had ever felt with any ship besides the Lightning Rod.
"Over there. Is that it?" Jacen asked, pointing.
"I believe so. You have excellent eyes," Tenel Ka said.
"Thanks. You have pretty nice eyes, too," Jacen teased.
"The signal's strong and clear," Anja said, ignoring the banter.
"Do you see it?"
"Got it," Zekk said, already making the course correction.
In less than five minutes he had maneuvered them into position beside
the cache, which had been tucked away beneath blocks of freefloating
arctic ice. The four separate containers were sealed, armored cases,
quickly stashed there for safekeeping, anchored to the ice.
Anja crowded close to the windowport, looking over Zekk's shoulder to
get a better view. Her face was flushed, her breathing ragged, her
hair damp with perspiration.
:'Okay, now what?" Zekk asked.
'Now we destroy them, just as we all agreed," Anja said.
"Hey, I hate to mention this, but those containers look like they're
pretty well armored. How do you expect to get rid of them?"
"I believe I can be of assistance there," Cilghal said. She set to
work at the controls of the two grappling arms attached to the minisub,
maneuvering until one of the sealed containers was in her grasp. Then
she squeezed with the claw mechanism until one of the claws pierced the
armor and the buoyant container began to fill with water.
"Should we just let it sink?" Zekk asked.
"No, that's not good enough!" Anja snapped. She calmed herself and
lowered her voice. "Czethros's people would still be able to locate it
by the transponder and retrieve the spice. This is valuable stuff,
remember."
"In that case, perhaps this will work," Cilghal said, reaching out with
the other claw-arm to grasp a second heavy cargo container. She swung
them both outward and then back together again to smash them into each
other. The already-punctured storage bin burst at the impact and a
flood of tiny sealed ampoules cascaded from the container. Some of the
vials shattered; others just drifted free and then slowly began to sink
into the frigid depths of the ocean.
"Is this an acceptable solution?" Tenel Ka asked Anja.
Anja was silent for a full minute, just staring at the shimmering
ampoules in the water around them and panting. Zekk wondered if she
regretted her decision to destroy them, but a moment later Anja
answered.
She raised a triumphant fist. "Yesss!" She gave a weak laugh.
"Even if Czethros's men manage to find the transponder signal now, I'd
like to see them all searching several square kilometers of ocean floor
and trying to collect all of those tiny little ampoules-one by one."
Zekk gave a satisfied nod. "As Jaina would say, what are we waiting
for? Let's smash the other ones."
Still leaning over his shoulder, Anja whispered, "Two down, two to
go.
" While Zekk handled the minisub's piloting controls, Cilghal deftly
maneuvered the pincer claws, grasping the final sealed container of
andris spice with one of them. To Jacen's surprise, the Jedi
ambassador stopped and blinked her huge fishy eyes. "Something is not
right."
The submersible's lights seemed to have attracted something in the
murky, ice-clogged water ... something large and dangerous and seeking
prey.
"What's that?" Jacen leaned toward a thick transparisteel porthole.
"There's a shadow out there, something ... swimming." He let his eyes
fall halfway closed, reached out with the Force. "Uh-oh."
As he stood, stretching his thoughts into the dark water, a giant
yellow eye flashed in front of the window, its pupil as large as
Jacen's head. His eyelids snapped up, and for a fraction of a second,
he froze, pinned by its cold and angry gaze.
"Jacen, any friend, do you have a 'bad feeling' about this?" Tenel Ka
asked.
He nodded. The creature swam forward. Its eye was followed by a mouth
filled with huge fangs, each one seemingly large enough to crush an
X-wing starlighter.
"Look out!" Jacen cried.
Zekk and the Calamarian ambassador grappled with the sub's controls.
The minisub rocked back and forth under the water as the startled sea
beast moved closer to look at the curious thing.
A huge tentacle the size of a space-station docking tether whipped
across their front field of view, slithering, probing.
Though the creature felt hungry to Jacen, it remained cautious as it
approached its new victim. The minisub turned about, its propellers
whirring in the water, pushing them ever so slowly toward safety.
The giant sea creature swam past again like an immense underwater ship,
not attacking yet. Its scaly hide rippled as it cruised by. More
tentacles streamed out in all directions.
Jacen gave a low whistle. "It's awfully big. Do you know what it is,
Cilghal?"
The Mon Calamarian shook her large head. "There are many things deep
in the oceans of my world that have never been named, or even seen, by
living creatures." , "We might not qualify as living creatures for
long, if that thing decides to go for us," Anja said.
The current from the beast's passage stiffed the waters, making the
minisub buck and sway. Zekk grasped the controls more tightly. Jacen
pressed his face against the cold porthole, observing the armored hide,
the long neck, the huge head with its
mouth that could swallow the
largest of fish. And tentacles everywhere.
A thick, sinuous arm struck the side of the minisub. Not hard-just an
exploratory tap-but it sent them careening end over end beneath the
water. Bubbles burst out all around the submersible.
Cilghal wrestled with the controls. "Hang on," she said as Zekk tried
to steady the craft in the midst of the foamy turmoil.
Anja was thrown backward into her seat.
Lights flickered and dimmed inside the cabin before the emergency
generators kicked on, adding fresh illumination.
Zekk grunted as his head smacked against the wall. "Tell me this sub
has some sort of defense system."
"Unfortunately, this is not a fact," Tenel Ka said. "And I doubt we
are capable of outswimming that creature."
Jacen looked through the front windowports into the cold arctic sea.
He sensed that the giant shadowy hulk would turn and swim back, return
for another pass-and that this time it would be less reticent to make a
full-fledged assault. He reached out with his mind, trying to use the
Force to find the massive creature's primitive mind. But the beast's
attention was entirely absorbed by the new prey.
"That wasn't even an attack yet," Zekk said. "The thing was just
checking us out." He rubbed the back of his neck, as if he tingled,
and looked back at Jacen. "Next time it'll want a meal."
The minisub's stabbing lights spread out in white cones through the
water. Bubbles still drifted up, shrouding them in a watery bead
curtain.
Moments later the gigantic silhouette swam into the light, showing off
its thick body core studded with long deadly tentacles, and its large
ravenous mouth. The creature undulated toward them, thrashing through
the water. The tiny underwater vehicle would never be able to travel
that fast. They could not escape through sheer energy alone.
The creature's maw opened wide.
Cilghal added power to the hull attitude jets, tilting the craft at a
steep angle to rise toward the jagged ceiling of ice under the polar
cap.
The sub sputtered out of the way. Snapping with its tentacles, the
monster pursued.
Despite Cilghal's attempts to control it during the violent evasive
maneuvers, the small grappling claw that held the last andris container
ripped loose. The second claw bent and jammed. The crate popped free,
drifting ... slowly sinking.
"There goes the spice!" Anja said, and Jacen couldn't be sure if she
was disappointed or just observing a fact.
Seeing the bright morsel fall away from the larger craft, the sea
monster swerved and ducked toward it. Long tentacles reached out,
grasped, and in a single swift movement the creature's fanged mouth
came forward and chomped down on the container. Swordlike teeth tore
through the outer coverings, freeing the spice ampoules.
Vials began to shatter. . . and the beast swallowed a thousand doses
of andris. All at once.
Jacen stared as the monster gulped down an immeasurable quantity of the
intense stimulant. "Uh-oh," he said, "now we're really in trouble. If
you thought that monster was hyper before, wait until the andris kicks
in." Below them, the creature thrashed about in growing agitation.
And then it turned its attention back to the minisub.
Under the humid, hazy sunlight of Yavin 4, a steady flow of Jedi
Knights came and learned and became the hope of the galaxy. Nothing
would stop them now.
Master Luke Skywalker considered his students over the years,
remembering them all. Alone at first, he had been so tentative, so
uncertain, as he tried to bring back the association of heroic fighters
who had performed so many legendary deeds in the days of the Old
Republic.
But now the Jedi training center had taken on a life of its own. The
new Jedi learned as much from each other, and from his former students,
as they took from Luke's lectures and intensive training sessions.
Never again would the order of Jedi Knights be limited by the
bottleneck of having only one teacher and a single student.
Luke's very first trainees, the batch of twelve he had taken and
trained after his Jedi search, were full Jedi Knights. They traveled
throughout the young New Republic fighting battles, helping to maintain
planetary stability, and performing the various good works a Jedi was
called upon to do. Some of those candidates had become legends in
their own right, a new generation. Now, with the remarkable
capabilities of Han and Leia's twins, as well as their young Jedi
friends and their younger brother Anakin, Luke felt that the Force had
truly been reborn.
The Jedi Knights were strong now. He did not believe they would ever
fall again.
He wished Obi-Wan Kenobi could be here to see him now. The "old
wizard" from the Jundland Wastes had changed his life more profoundly
than Luke could ever have imagined. Kenobi had turned a simple farm
boy from a desert planet into a Jedi. And, in so doing, he had
single-handedly set in motion the events that had brought down the
Empire, restored the Jedi Knights, and helped create the benevolent New
Republic. Kenobi had died sacrificing himself on the Death Star before
he could see any of his seeds bear fruit, but Luke would never forget
him. The teachings of the old Jedi would always be a part of Luke's
continuing work at the Jedi academy.
Students came and went here on Yavin 4. Luke's partner in teaching,
Tionne, had been one of his first students. In order to keep from
repeating the mistakes of the past, she made certain the candidates
were well grounded in history. Tionne loved to tell tales of past
Jedi. She shared her knowledge of the lore of those who fought for the
light side of the Force in ancient times. Through her teachings, the
legends survived and grew, fixed again in history-though the evil
Emperor had tried to obliterate them from the memory of all living
beings.
As Luke stood pondering, Artoo trundled up, bleeping a greeting and
chittering a new assessment of supplies and needed equipment.
Luke rested a hand on the astromech droid's domed head.
"Relax, Artoo. I was just thinking about how things have changed."
He recalled his uncle Owen and aunt Beru, who had tried to shield him
from all traumas his life would bring. Their attempts to corral him on
a desert world and keep his dreams small had been unsuccessful. His
aunt and uncle had wanted him to hide on Tatooine, to live the
uneventful life of a quiet, simple moisture farmer. Uncle Owen had
known Luke's heritage, who his father was, and what dark connections a
Skywalker child might have. Despite the best of intentions, the
overprotectiveness of Owen and Beru Lars had nearly cost Luke-and the
galaxy-the ultimate freedom.
Visions of the last time he had been home as a boy filled his mindthe
burned-out moisture farm, the blackened corpses of Uncle Owen and Aunt
Beru, gunned down by stormtroopers in an act of terrorism.
He had no idea w
hat horrors they had experienced in their last moments,
whether his aunt and uncle had been tortured by the Imperials for
information ... even though they'd had nothing to tell.
But the stoffntroopers had killed them anyway.
He wished Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru could be here now to witness all he
had accomplished. Luke Skywalker had established a firm place in
history. But lasting victories often demanded harsh sacrifice.
Luke vowed that such violent repression would never happen again, not
if he or his Jedi Knights could prevent it. There would be battles to
fight, and there would be casualties. He didn't try to give his new
trainees a false sense of reality. There were great costs associated
with being a Jedi. They might be called on to suffer, to feel pain
...
or to die for a cause.
But Jedi did what they believed was right-not what was simple or
safe.
They trusted the Force.
In front of the rebuilt temple on the training field, a dozen students
sparred and clashed. Some practiced alone, using their minds to work
with the Force. Others developed the fine points of teamwork. His
students, all of them ... but they were also their own people. They
would go through their own ordeals.