hands together. "You children ought to enjoy your younger years, while
people like me take care of the difficult work."
She shooed them away. "Run along now. Down in the docking bay you'll
find the speeder I programmed. It's completely safe, I assure you. I've
input a simple loop course that will take you out beyond the reef into
the open ocean and then back here by nightfall. I've even seen to it
that you have a basket of food, so you can enjoy a meal together whileyy
ou're out." She drew a deep breath and smiledher insincere smile. "I'm
sure you'll have a wonderful time."
Jacen studied the ambassador, trying to determine whether or not to be
suspicious. He certainly understood how time-consuming the demands of
government could be, since his mother was a Chief of State herself. He
also thought of how restless the four companions had been for the past
day.
"Blaster bolts! Let's go out and have a good time," he said. "It'll be
great to be away from the watching eyes of parents and escorts and
ambassadors. I promise you we're going to have fun."
Tenel Ka nodded seriously. "This is a fact." Then she gave him one of
the most remarkable gifts Jacen had ever received.
She smiled at him.
The wavespeeder roared across the sea, bouncing and thumping as it
crossed the troughs and crests like a wheeled vehicle traveling at high
speed across a heavily rutted road. Though the autopilot followed a
predetermined course, Jaina and Lowie each took turns at the wheel
guiding the rudder, seeing just how far the autopilot would let them
deviate from its course. Lowbacca let out a happysounding bleat.
Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca observes that this vehicle bears some
similarity to his own T-23 skyhopper."
LIGHTSABERS
^ Jaina looked at the ginger-furred Wookiee. "Reminds me more of the
controls of the Millennium Falcon. You and I wouldn't have any problem
piloting this thing, Lowie," she said. Lowbacca rumbled in agreement.
The wavespeeder took them away from the rough foamy waters around the
reef, on which the isolated fortress towered like a citadel overlooking
the blue-green ocean of Hapes.
Jacen sat back and talked with Tenel Ka as they let themselves be lulled
by the reflected sunlight and the hypnotic undulation of the waves.
"Hey, Tenel Ka," he said tentatively. "I've got a great joke-listen.
Which side of an Ewok has the most fur?"
Tenel Ka looked at him seriously. "I have never considered the
question."
"The outside! Get it?"
"Jacen, why do you so often tell me jokes?" she asked. "I do not believe
I ever laugh at them."
Jacen shrugged. "Hey, I was just trying to cheer you UP."
Tenel Ka threw him an odd glance. "You think I need cheering up?"
When he answered her, Jacen noticed that he had a difficult time keeping
his eyes away from the healed pinkish stump of her arm. "Well, you just
seemed kind of quiet and serious."
Tenel Ka raised her eyebrows. "Am I not always quiet and serious?"
Jacen forced a laugh. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Tenel Ka continued, "We have discussed this, Jacen. Please do not assume
that I need cheering up, that I am helpless, or that I have somehow
turned into a whimpering weakling. I am still a Jedi trainee, and I
believe I will still become a Jedi Knight . . . as soon as I figure out
how."
Jacen reached over tentatively to rest his fingers on her arm and slid
them down until she caught his hand in her strong grip.
"If there's any way I can help you, let me know," he said.
She gave his hand a brief squeeze. "I will."
The wavespeeder cruised around a set of sharp rock points that thrust up
from the water. The Dragon's Teeth, Tenel Ka called them. The jagged
pinnacles hunched together, and the surging waters spurted between them
with a slamming sound, regularly erupting in a geyser of white foam.
The engines roared as the craft turned to skirt the turbulence near the
Dragon's Teeth, then picked up speed again, shooting out toward the open
waves.
Jaina and Lowie studied the course, each making calculations and trying
to guess how far the craft might take them before they circled back.
"It's about time for lunch," Jacen said, rummaging through the food
baskets and handing out meal packets.
LIGHTSABERS
^ When Lowie roared in agreement, Em Teedee said, "Well, of course,
Master Lowbacca-aren't you always hungry?" The young Wookiee chuffed
with laughter, but did not disagree.
The wind from their passage whipped spray in their faces, and the
salty-fresh air made Jacen ravenous. He and his friends ate the
self-warming meal packs and filled their cups from a thermal beverage
container.
Jaina stared through the wavespeeder's transparisteel windscreen while
she munched. She glanced at the course again. "I wonder how far this is
going to take us."
Up ahead Jacen noted that the water seemed to have a different color and
consistency . . . to be more greenish and rough-looking.
Lowie sniffed, sniffed more deeply, then growled a query. Em Teedee
answered, "I couldn't tell you, Master Lowbacca-my scent analyzers can't
seem to match this with the appropriate data to provide a clear answer.
Salt, of course, iodine . . . and some sort of decomposing biological
matter, perhaps?"
Jacen caught it too: a sick, sour stench that clogged the air and
weighed it down. "Smells like dead fish."
Tenel Ka narrowed her eyes in concentration.
"And rotting seaweed. Something very old is there.
Something . . . not healthy."
Jaina scanned their course again. "Well, the wavespeeder's taking us
right toward it."
Before anyone else could speak, they cruised into the strange,
gelatinous area. The water was covered with leafy, floating seaweed as
dense as jungle undergrowth. Thick, rubbery tentacles with long wet
thorns glistened in the water. Huge, scarlet flowers as big as Jacen's
head opened up in the thickest portions of the morass.
Jacen leaned over the edge of the wavespeeder to get a better look. The
center of each fleshy-lipped flower held a cluster of moist blue fruits
that made the entire blossom look like a wide-open eye. This impression
was heightened when the wavespeeder's passing triggered some sort of
reflex and the petals of the floating plants blinked closed like eyelids
squeezing shut.
"Weird," his sister said next to him.
"Interesting," he replied.
Ahead, the tangled mass of spiny seaweed extended as far as they could
see. The wavespeeder continued automatically across the undulating
surface of the water, and the foul smell grew stronger.
The thick stems and fronds of weed twitched, as if moving by themselves,
although Jacen decided it must be caused by swirling currents in the
water underneath.
Some of the large eye-flowers rose on their stalks and turned in their
direction, as if studying them.
Jacen shivered and glanced at Jaina. "Uh, then again . . . may
be 'weird'
is a better word for it," he agreed.
LIGHTSABERS
^ Lowie looked around, moaning uneasily. Jaina met the Wookiee's gaze
and bit her lower lip.
"Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about where this boat is taking us. I
don't know if I want to go any deeper into this seaweed desert."
"But we're stuck with the autopilot, aren't we?"
Jacen said. "If you shut it off, how'll we get back?"
The young Wookiee barked an answer at the same time as Jaina replied,
"Been keeping an eye on the course. Lowie and I could probably find our
way back home. Ought to be pretty easy."
Tenel Ka stood up, scanning the seaweed, as if trying to remember
something. "Jaina is right," she said. "We should return now. To remain
here would be unwise."
Jaina and Lowie took over the controls, throttling back while they
disengaged the autopilot. As they eased the craft around to head back
out of the seaweed, the engine sputtered to a stop.
Since he loved to investigate strange plants and animals, Jacen took the
opportunity to lean over the side of the speeder again. He reached down
to touch the rubbery, interesting-looking seaweed.
Suddenly, every red eye-flower swiveled to stare at him.
"Whoa!" Jacen said. He waved his hand experimentally, and the flowers
turned, attracted by the motion.
Intrigued, he reached for the closest blossomand a slick tentacle of
seaweed whipped up to wrap around his wrist, capturing him in its barbed
embrace.
"Hey!" he shouted. Thorns stung his arm. The seaweed began to pull.
"Help!"
He grabbed the railing of the wavespeeder with his free hand to keep
from being yanked into the mass of ravenous seaweed. The tentacles
thrashed wildly now . . . hungrily. Other fronds reached up to slap the
side of the boat, twining themselves about the rail.
Lowbacca leaped from the nearby pilot station and grabbed his friend's
legs just as the tentacle, redoubling its efforts, gave a sharp jerk and
pulled Jacen over the railing. He dangled over the water, struggling to
free his arm from the seaweed.
Tenel Ka suddenly appeared beside them. Wrapping her legs around the
deck rail, one of her throwing knives gripped tightly in her hand, she
bent to slash at the tentacle that grasped Jacen's arm. The seaweed cut
free with a snap, and in the recoil Lowbacca managed to yank Jacen back
onto the deck.
"Blaster bolts!" Jacen cried, wiping blood from the oozing wounds on his
hand. "That was close."
But it was just the beginning. With dread, he looked at the water all
around them. The seaweed rolled angrily in every direction, as far as
the eye could see. Large fronds thrashed into the air, grab LIGHTSABERS
^ bing the deck rails, as if intending to heave the wavespeeder down.
The monster had tasted Jacen's blood, and now it had decided that Jedi
Knights were exactly what it wanted for lunch.
Another writhing tentacle rose above the boat's side, searching for a
target t ' o skewer with its thorns.
Tenel Ka leaped in front of the deadly frond, wielding her throwing
dagger. She stabbed into the thick stem of seaweed, and a syrupy green
ooze gushed out.
The seaweed recoiled, then lashed back, slapping Tenel Ka across the
side of the head. A trickle of blood traced a scarlet line down her
cheek. Rather than cry out in pain, Tenel Ka chose to respond with her
knife, slashing through the coiled weed-and another fat tentacle thumped
to the deck.
Jacen shook his injured arm to restore the feeling then grasped the
lightsaber clipped at his side. He had not used it in some time, but
there was no room for hesitation now-not if he ever intended to be a
Jedi Knight . . . not if any of them wanted to get out of this mess
alive. He flicked on the emeraldgreen blade. "I'm not letting some weed
get the best of me!" he said.
The humming weapon sliced off one of the large tentacles twined around
the rail. "Take that," Jacen said. Gray fumes burned his eyes as the
chunk of severed seaweed fell away.
Out in the water the tentacles thrashed. Now they seemed to be in pain.
The scarlet eye-flowers blinked and gyrated furiously. The smell of
seared vegetables and saltwater filled the air.
"I'm getting us out of here," Jaina called from the controls, restarting
the engines. But grasping tentacles held them in place, and the
wavespeeder could not break loose.
Roaring, Lowbacca ignited his own blazing lightsaber and held it with
both hands, a glowing bludgeon of molten-bronze light.
Larger stems rose now from the deeper water, each with a pair of
serrated shells on the end, like vicious pincers ready to tear apart
prey. The tentacles writhed and cracked their sharp edges together,
looking for something to bite into.
Jaina pushed hard on the controls. The wavespeeder's engines whined as
it strained against the grasping tentacles.
Lowie raced to the rail. Bellowing a warning he swept down with his
lightsaber blade again and again, slicing through the seaweed that still
held their craft.
"Oh, do be careful, Master Lowbacca-here comes another one!"
Grunting a reply, Lowie slashed at the tentacle, and the little
translating droid said, "Excellently done, Master Lowbacca! And it's
quite a comfort to hear you would rather I didn't wind up as an
appetizer for a mass of salivating seaweed."
LIGHTSABERS
^ Tenel Ka turned to fend off an attack from one of the sharp-shelled
tentacles. She slashed with her knife, but one of the clamshell pincers
clenched the point of her dagger with a loud click. The razoredged
shells cracked again, pushing to reach closer to her face.
Then Jacen was there, chopping the tentacle away with his brilliant
green energy blade. He flashed Tenel Ka a roguish grin. "Just wanted to
keep the score even!"
"My thanks, Jacen," she said.
Lowie hacked with his blade, severing the last of the seaweed tentacles
holding the boat. The wavespeeder broke loose and lurched away while
thorny fronds writhed and lashed out, struggling to recapture their
prize.
As quickly as she could, Jaina pushed the wavespeeder to its highest
velocity, roaring over the twisted weed. The malevolent eye-flowers
stared at them.
Other thrashing tentacles rose up, but the seaweed seemed unable to
respond fast enough.
Jacen gripped his emerald-bladed lightsaber, ready.
This thing was more than a plant. It was . . . something sentient,
something that could respond. He used the Force, hoping to calm it, make
it leave them alone. "I can't find its brain," he said. "It seems to be
all reflexes. All I can sense is that it's hungry, hungry."
"Yeah, well it's going to stay hungry a while longer," Jaina said.
"Yes, indeed! I agree wholeheartedly," Em Teedee answered.
Moments later they were out into open water again. Jaina and Lowie
plotted their new course, made the appropriate calculations, and
manually set the wavespeeder
's direction to take them back to the Reef
Fortress.
Glancing over at Tenel Ka to make sure she wasn't hurt, Jacen was
surprised to see her wearing a calm and satisfied expression as she slid
her throwing dagger back into its sheath at her waist.
She seemed more alive and confident now than he had seen her at any time
since their fateful lightsaber duel on Yavin 4.
"We are fine warriors," Tenel Ka said. "There is nothing like a physical
challenge to make the day more relaxing."
Lowbacca gave a low grunt. Em Teedee bleeped, but refrained from
articulating a comment. Jaina looked at Tenel Ka in surprise, but Jacen
laughed.
"Yeah, we are quite a team, aren't we? Real young Jedi Knights."
Tenel Ka helped Jacen bind up the minor wounds on his arm, and he
applied some salve from the wavespeeder's emergency medkit to the
stinging cut on her cheek. "I do not believe Ambassador Yfra had this in
mind when she sent us out for a day of recreation," she said, "but I
found it enjoyable nevertheless."
LIGHTSABERS
^ Lowbacca growled and pointed toward the navigation console. "Oh, dear!
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