* 1 *
Jacen grasped the lightsaber, feeling its comforting weight against his
sweaty palms. His scalp tingled beneath its unruly tangle of brown curls as
he sensed the approach of his enemy. Closer, closer . . . He drew in a slow
breath and reached with one finger that trembled ever so slightly to press
the button on the handle.
With a buzzing hiss, the cold metal handle sprang to life, transforming into
a sword of glowing energy. The deadly lightsaber pulsed and vibrated in his
hands like a living thing.
With a mixture of fear and excitement, Jacen's wiry frame tensed for the
attack. His liquid-brown eyes fluttered shut for a moment as he visualized
his opponent.
Without warning, he heard the hum of a lightsaber slice down from above.
Jacen whirled just in time and caught the blow with his own lightsaber. The
deep red of his opponent's weapon throbbed with power, filling his vision as
the two glowing blades warred for dominance. Jacen knew he was far
outmatched in size and strength, that he would need all of his wits to get
out of this encounter alive. His arms ached with the strain of holding off
the blow, so he took advantage of his smaller size, spinning under his
opponent's arm and dancing out of reach.
The attacker advanced toward him, but Jacen knew better than to let him get
that close again. The ruby glow flashed toward him, and he was ready. He
parried the blow and then swept sideways with his own blade before dodging
backward and blocking the next thrust.
Attack and counterattack. Thrust. Parry. Block. Lightsabers sizzled and
hissed as they clashed again and again.
Though the room was cool and dank, perspiration ran down Jacen's face and
into his eyes, nearly blinding him. He saw the arc of red light barely in
time and ducked to avoid it. A cocky lopsided grin sprang to his lips, and
he realized he was enjoying himself. Stone chips flew around him as the
deadly ruby blade gouged the low ceiling just over his head.
Jacen's grin faded as he tried to take a step backward and felt cold stone
blocks press into his shoulder blades. He parried another thrust, sprang
sideways, and fetched up against another stone wall. He was cornered. An icy
fist of fear clenched his stomach, and Jacen dropped to one knee, flinging
up his blade to ward off the next blow. A sound like thunder echoed through
the chamber. . . .
Jacen opened his eyes and looked up to see his uncle Luke standing in the
doorway, clearing his throat. Startled, Jacen fumbled to turn off the
lightsaber and accidentally dropped the extinguished handle to the
flagstones with a clatter.
The sandy-haired, black-robed Jedi Master strode into the private room that
served as both his office and his meditation chamber at the Jedi academy. He
held his hand out toward the lightsaber, and the weapon sprang to his palm
as if magnetized.
Jacen gulped as Master Luke Skywalker fixed him with a solemn gaze. "I'm
sorry, Uncle Luke," Jacen said, his words coming out in a tumbling rush. "I
came here to ask you for your help, and when you weren't here, I decided to
wait, and then I saw your lightsaber just lying on your desk, and I know you
said I'm not ready yet, but I didn't see how it could hurt to just practice
a little. So I picked it up, and I guess I just got carried away and-"
Luke held up one hand, palm outward, as if to forestall further explanation.
"The weapon of the Jedi shouldn't be taken up lightly," he said.
Jacen felt his cheeks flush at the gentle rebuke. "But I know I could learn
to use a lightsaber," he said, defensive. "I'm old enough, and I'm tall
enough, and I've been practicing in my room with a piece of pipe I got from
Jaina - I'm sure I could do it."
Luke seemed to consider this for a moment before shaking his head slowly.
"There'll be time enough for that when you are ready."
"But I'm ready now," Jacen protested.
"Not yet," Luke said, smiling sadly. "The time will come soon enough."
Jacen groaned with impatience. It was always _Later_, always _Some other
time_, always Maybe _when you're older_. He sighed. "You're the teacher. I'm
the student, so I have to listen, I guess."
Luke smiled and shook his head. "Ali. Be careful-don't assume a teacher is
always right, without question. You have to think for yourself. Sometimes we
teachers make mistakes, too. But in this case, I am right: You're not yet
ready for a lightsaber.
"Believe me, I know what it's like to wait," Luke continued. "But patience
can be as strong an ally as any weapon." Then his eyes twinkled. "Don't you
have more important things to be worrying about right now than imaginary
lightsaber battles - like getting ready for your trip? Don't your pets need
to be fed?"
"I'm all packed, and I'll feed the animals just before we leave," Jacen
said, thinking of the menagerie of pets he had collected since coming to the
jungle moon. "But the trip is what I came here to talk to you about."
Luke raised his eyebrows. "Yes?"
"I - I was hoping you could talk to Tenel Ka and convince her to come with
us to see Lando Calrissian's mining station."
Luke's brows drew together, and he chose his words carefully. "Why is it
important to change her mind?"
"Because Jaina and Lowbacca and I are all going," Jacen said, "and . . . and
it just won't be the same without her," he finished lamely.
Luke's face relaxed, and his eyes sparkled with humor. "It's not so easy to
change the mind of a Force-wielding warrior from Dathomir, you know,'' he
said.
"But it doesn't make sense that she wants to stay behind," Jacen exclaimed.
"She made up some dumb excuse that it would be boring-said she was sure
Corusca gems weren't any more beautiful than rainbow gems from Gallinore,
and she's seen plenty of those. But she didn't sound bored; she sounded
worried or nervous."
"We must think for ourselves," Luke said, "and sometimes that means we have
to make difficult or unpopular decisions." Luke put an arm around Jacen's
shoulders and led him toward the door. "Go feed your pets now. Have a safe
journey to GemDiver Station - and rest assured, Tenel Ka has good reasons."
Tenel Ka woke with a start, shivering and drenched with perspiration in the
cool, stonewalled chamber. Sunset-copper hair hung across her vision in
tangles that had once been orderly braids. Her bedsheets were twisted about
her legs as if she had been running in her sleep.
Then she remembered the dream. She had been running. Running from
black-cloaked shadowy figures with purple-splotched faces. Muddled memories
of stories her mother had told her as a child swirled through her
sleep-fogged brain. She had never seen those terrifying forms before, but
she knew what they were-witches from Dathomir who had drawn on the dark side
o
f the Force to work all manner of evil.
The Nightsisters.
But the last of the Nightsisters had been destroyed or disbanded long before
Tenel Ka had even been born. Why should she dream of them now? The only
Force-wielders left on Dathomir used the powers of the light side. Why these
nightmares? Why now?
She squeezed her eyes shut and flopped back on her bed with a grunt as she
realized what day it was. This was the day that her grandmother, Matriarch
of the Hapan Royal Household, was sending an ambassador to visit Tenel Ka,
the heir to the Royal Throne of Hapes. And she didn't want her friends to
know she was a princess. . . .
Ambassador Yfra. Tenel Ka shuddered as she thought of her iron-willed
grandmother and her ambassadors, women who would lie or even kill to
preserve their power-although her grandmother no longer ruled Hapes. Tenel
Ka shook her head in wry amusement. The impending visit must be why she had
dreamt of the Nightsisters.
Although the inhabitants of her mother's primitive planet of Dathomir and
her father's plush homeworld of Hapes were light-years apart, the parallels
between the Hapan politicians and the Nightsisters of Dathomir were obvious:
All were power-hungry women who would stop at nothing to keep the power they
craved.
Tenel Ka levered herself into a sitting position. She did not relish the
idea of meeting with Ambassador Yfra. In fact, the only positive thought she
could muster about it was that her friends would not be here to observe it.
At least Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca would be far away on Lando Calrissian's
GemDiver Station before the ambassador ever arrived. They would not be here
to wonder why their friend, who claimed to be a simple warrior from
Dathomir, was being visited by a royal ambassador from the House of Hapes.
And Tenel Ka was not ready yet to explain that to them.
Well, she couldn't stay in bed any longer. She would have to get up and face
whatever the day had to offer her. The meeting was unavoidable. "This," she
muttered, flinging aside the covers and standing, "is a fact."
Jaina and Lowbacca sat in the center of Jaina's student quarters surrounded
by a holographic map of the Yavin system.
"That ought to do it," she said. Her straight shoulder-length hair swung
forward like a curtain, partially veiling her face, as she hunched over to
scrutinize the input pad for her holoprojector. She had built the projector
herself, piecing it together from her private stock of used electronic
modules, components, cables, and other odds and ends that she kept neatly
organized in a bank of bins and drawers that filled one wall of her
quarters.
"Pretty impressive, huh, Lowie?" Jaina asked, flashing a lopsided grin at
the ginger-furred young Wookiee. She pointed at the luminescent sphere
drifting above their heads that represented the gas-giant planet of Yavin.
Lowbacca pointed to the image of a small green moon that hovered just above
his left shoulder, in orbit around the big orange planet. He gave
an interrogative growl.
"Ahem," the miniature translator droid Em Teedee said from the clip on
Lowie's belt, as if clearing its throat. Em Teedee was roughly oval in
shape, rounded in the front and flat on the back, with irregularly spaced
optical sensors and a wide speaker grill at the center. "Master Lowbacca
wishes to know," the miniature droid went on, "if the sphere he indicated
represents the moon Yavin 4, where we are now."
"Right," said Jaina. "The gas planet Yavin has more than a dozen moons, but
I haven't managed to program them all in yet. What I mainly wanted to see,"
she continued, "was the trajectory we're going to follow when Lando takes us
to his gem-mining station in the upper atmosphere of Yavin."
Lowie growled a comment, and Jaina waited impatiently while the prissy
translator droid interpreted for her.
"Of course it's a bit dangerous," she responded, rolling her brown eyes in
exasperation, "but not much. And this is too good an opportunity to pass up.
Lando's going to let us help with some of the mining operations, not just
watch," Jaina said, pointing to a spot just above the glowing surface of
Yavin.
Lowbacca reached for the holoprojector's input pad and pressed a few
buttons. In a moment a tiny metallic-looking object appeared near the
surface: GemDiver Station.
"Show-off," Jaina said, chuckling at the speed with which Lowie had
programmed the holo map. "Tell you what, from now on I build 'em, you
program 'em - fair enough?"
Lowie pretended to preen, rumbling his agreement as he smoothed his hand
along the black streak that ran through his fur from his forehead down his
back.
Just then Jacen bounded through the door.
"They're here," he said breathlessly. "I mean almost here. They're on
approach. I was in the control room and I heard that the Lady Luck was
coming in." Twin pairs of eyes - each the color of Corellian brandy - met in
a mixture of excitement and anticipation.
"Well, then," Jaina said, "what are we waiting for?"
Jaina watched with admiration as Lando Calrissian strode down the ramp of
the Lady Luck, an emerald-green cape billowing out behind him and a broad
smile on his dark, handsome face. His frequent companion, the bald cyborg
assistant Lobot, followed him down the gangplank and stood stiffly at his
side.
Lando greeted Jaina with a gallant kiss on the hand before turning with a
formal bow to her twin brother Jacen and Lowie. Next, he clapped the
shoulder of Luke Skywalker, who had come to meet the Lady Luck, his
barrel-shaped droid Artoo-Detoo following close behind him.
"Take good care of them, Lando," Luke said. "No unnecessary risks, okay?"
Artoo added a few beeps and whistles of his own.
Lando looked at Luke, pretending to take offense. "Hey, you know I wouldn't
let these kids do anything I didn't think was a safe bet."
Luke grinned and gave Lando's shoulder an affectionate slap. "That's what
I'm afraid of."
"You're just worried that once they see my GemDiver Station they'll be so
impressed they won't want to come back to your Jedi academy," Lando joked.
Then, with a flourish of his cape, Lando Calrissian motioned Lowie and Jacen
up the ramp. He turned to Jaina. "And what can I do to make this field trip
more interesting and rewarding for you, young lady?" he asked, offering her
his arm to escort her into the ship.
"The first thing you can do," she said, accepting his arm with an
enthusiastic smile, "is tell me all about the Lady Luck's engines.
* 2 *
The Lady Luck left the jewel-green jungle moon behind as Lando Calrissian
and his trusted companion Lobot piloted them across space toward the gaseous
ball of Yavin.
"You kids should enjoy this," Lando said. "I don't think you've seen
anything quite like Corusca mining before."
As the Lady Luck approached the giant planet, the orbiting industrial
station came into view. Lando's Corusca-mining facility, GemDiver Station,
was a symphony of running lights and transmit
ting grids surrounded by dozens
of automated
defensive satellites. The security satellites homed in on the Lady Luck,
powering up weapons as the ship approached. But when Lando keyed in an
access authorization code, the satellites acknowledged his signal, then
turned back to their robotic perimeter search for intruders and pirates.
"Can't have too much security," he said, "not when you're dealing with
something as valuable as these Corusca gems."
Lobot, the bald, computer-enhanced human, continued his cool surveillance of
the controls. Lights on the mechanical apparatus implanted on the back of
Lobot's skull flashed and blinked as he studied the guidance grid and
compass. Piloting smoothly, Lobot brought the Lady Luck into the main
docking bay on GemDiver Station.
"I'm glad Luke let you come up here," Lando said, glancing back at Jacen,
Jaina, and Lowie. "You can't learn everything about the universe just by
sitting in the jungle and lifting rocks off the ground with your mind." He
flashed a grin. "You need to broaden your horizons-learn about the way
commerce works in the New Republic . That'll give you some useful
knowledge, in case your lightsabers ever fail."
"We don't have lightsabers yet," Jacen said dejectedly.
"Then you might as well learn something useful in the meantime," Lando
answered. Seeing Jacen's frustration, he added, "You know, your uncle Luke
is concerned about your safety. He can be pretty cautious, but I trust his
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