Shadow Academy

by Kevin J. Anderson

  her neck and placed them on the table beside the payment she and Luke had

  already made for the large gem.

  "Surely you understand our caution," Luke said. "We must know if there is

  anyone capable of stealing our treasure from us."

  The middleman picked up the string of gems and looked them over carefully

  "Can't tell ya much," he said in a low voice. "Last shipment o' big

  industrial gems, one person bought 'em all. Big order."

  "Can you describe their ships, tell us what planet they came from?" Luke

  pressed.

  The bearded middleman still did not look up. "Not much, actually. Never saw

  the ship she came on. All I know's she called herself a . . . a lady of the

  evenin' . . . er a daughter of darkness, er something' like that."

  Tenel Ka caught her breath, and she felt Luke stiffen beside her. "You mean

  a - a Nightsister?" Tenel Ka asked with a quaver in her voice.

  "Yeah, that was it! A Nightsister," the middleman said. "Goofy name."

  Luke's eyes met Tenel Ka's and held.

  "Thank you, gentlemen, Luke said slowly. "If you're right, I'm afraid this

  'Nightsister' may have taken some of our valuables already."

  * 8 *

  Jacen stood behind Qorl's pilot chair, biting his lip. The Nightsister

  Tamith Kai loomed over them, powerful and threatening. He flashed a glance

  at Jaina, but he didn't think they could do anything to resist.

  Not yet anyway.

  Docking doors on the ring of the Shadow Academy eased open in the

  silence of space, exposing a dark cavernous bay rimmed with flashing yellow

  lights to guide Qorl's ship in. The Imperial pilot worked the controls with

  grim proficiency, and Jacen noticed that his damaged left arm-which had

  never properly healed when his TIE fighter had crashed on Yavin 4-was now

  bulkier, encased in black leather from the shoulder down, wrapped with

  straps and battery packs.

  "Qorl, what happened to your arm?" Jacen asked. "Did they heal it for you,

  like we promised we 'd do at the Jedi academy?"

  Qorl diverted his attention from the docking maneuvers, turning his haunted

  pale eyes toward the boy. "They did not heal it," Qorl said. "They replaced

  it. I now have a droid arm, which is better than my old one. Stronger,

  capable of more tasks." He bent his leather-bound arm.

  Jacen caught the faint whining of servomotors. His stomach clenched in sick

  revulsion. "They didn't have to do that," Jacen said. "We could have healed

  you in a bacta tank, or a medical droid could have tended you. At worst you

  would have been fitted with a biomechanical prosthetic that looks just like

  a real arm-even my uncle has one of those. There was no need to give you a

  droid arm."

  Qorl's face was stony, and he turned his attention back to piloting his

  craft. "Nevertheless, it is done. My arm is better now, stronger."

  The Imperial ship drifted into the docking bay, and lines of pulsing lights

  continued to illuminate the reflective metal walls. A transparisteel-encased

  observation bay with angular windows protruded from the inner wall above.

  Jacen could see small figures running diagnostics, working systems to guide

  Qorl's ship in. The ship settled down with barely a bump. The docking-bay

  doors closed behind them, sealing the prisoners inside the sinister Shadow

  Academy .

  Tamith Kai spoke into the comm channel. "Engage cloaking device," she said,

  her deep voice as irresistible and compelling as a tractor beam. Though

  Jacen could see or feel nothing different, he knew that the large space

  station had suddenly vanished, leaving the illusion of nothing but empty

  space, where no one would ever find them.

  Flanked by a stormtrooper escort, Tamith Kai ushered the children down the

  boarding ramp, away from the assault ship that had kidnapped them from

  GemDiver Station. She took them across the bay, toward a broad scarlet door

  that slid open as they approached.

  On the other side stood a young-looking man dressed in flowing silvery

  robes. His smooth skin and silken blond hair seemed to glow. He was one of

  the most beautiful humans Jacen had ever seen, perfectly formed, like a holo

  simulation of an ideal man, or a sculptors masterpiece chiseled out of

  alabaster. A contingent of stormtroopers stood behind him, blaster rifles

  resting on their shoulders.

  "Welcome, new recruits," he said in a gentle voice that carried undertones

  of music. "I am Brakiss, leader of the Shadow Academy "

  Jacen heard his sister gasp and couldn't restrain his own exclamation.

  "Brakiss?" he said. "Blaster bolts! We've heard about you. You were an

  Imperial spy planted at Master Skywalker's academy, trying to steal our

  training methods."

  Brakiss smiled as if inwardly amused.

  "That's right," Jaina continued excitedly. "Master Skywalker figured out who

  you were, but when he tried to turn you to the light side-to save you-you

  couldn't face the ugliness inside yourself."

  Brakiss's smile never faltered. "Ah, so that's how he tells it? Master

  Skywalker and I did not agree on the . . . particulars of training in the

  Force. But he had at least one good idea: He was correct to bring back the

  Jedi Knights. He realized that the Jedi were the preservers and protectors

  of the Old Republic . They unified the decaying old government and

  kept it alive long after it should have dissolved into anarchy.

  "And now that there is anarchy among the remnants of the Imperial forces, we

  need such a unifying force. We have already found a powerful new leader, a

  great one" - Brakiss smiled - "but we also need our own group of Dark Jedi

  Knights, Imperial Jedi, who will cement our factions together and give us

  the will to defeat the wicked and unlawful government of the New

  Republic and bring about the Second Imperium?"

  "Hey, our mother leads the New Republic !" Jacen objected. "She's

  not wicked. And she doesn't torture people, or kidnap them, either."

  Brakiss said, "It all depends on your perspective."

  "Who's this new leader, anyway?" Jaina interrupted. "Haven't you tried to

  find a single leader before-and ended up with everyone fighting to run

  what's left of the Empire? It won't work."

  "Silence," Tamith Kai said, her voice thick with menace. "You will not ask

  questions; you will receive indoctrination. You will be trained as powerful

  warriors to fight in the service of the Empire."

  "I don't think so," Jacen said defiantly.

  His sisters face flushed with anger. "We won't cooperate with you. You can't

  steal us away and just expect us to be diligent little students for you.

  Master Skywalker and our parents will comb the galaxy to find us. They will

  find us, and then you'll be sorry."

  Behind them, Lowie snarled and spread his long arms as if longing to tear

  something limb from limb, as his uncle Chewbacca was rumored to do whenever

  he lost a hologame. The stormtroopers suddenly trained their rifles on the

  infuriated Wookiee.

  "Hey, don't shoot him!" Jacen said, moving between the stormtrooper and

  Lowie.

  Jaina spoke up in an authoritative tone that took Jacen by surprise. "What

  have you
done with Em Teedee, Lowie's translator droid? He needs to

  communicate-unless of course all of these stormtroopers can somehow speak

  the Wookiee language?"

  "He will be given his little droid back," Tamith Kai said, "as soon as it

  has undergone . . .suitable reprogramming."

  Brakiss clapped his hands at the troopers. "We will go to their quarters

  now," he said. "Their training must begin soon. The Second Imperium has a

  great need for Dark Jedi Knights."

  "You'll never turn us," Jaina said. "You re wasting your time."

  Brakiss looked at her, smiled indulgently, and stood in silence for a long

  moment. "You may find that your mind will change," he said. "Why don't we

  wait and see."

  The stormtroopers formed an armed escort around them as they marched along

  the clanking metal deck plates. The Shadow Academy was not

  comfortable and soft like Lando's GemDiver Station. The walls were not

  painted with pastel colors; there were no soothing strains of music or

  nature sounds over the loudspeaker systems, only harsh status reports and

  chronometer tones that chimed every quarter hour. Stenciled labels marked

  the doors. Occasional computer terminals mounted to the walls displayed maps

  of the station and complicated simulations in progress.

  "This is an austere station," Tamith Kai said as Jacen stared at the cold,

  heartless walls. "We don't bother with luxury accommodations like your

  jungle academy. However, we have made sure that you each have a private

  chamber so you can conduct your meditation exercises, practice your

  assignments, and concentrate on developing your Force skills."

  "No!" Jaina said.

  "We'd rather stay together," Jacen added.

  Lowbacca roared in agreement.

  Tamith Kai came to an abrupt stop and looked down at them. "I did not ask

  your preference!" she said, her violet eyes blazing. "You will do as you are

  told."

  They reached an intersection of corridors, and here they split into three

  groups. Brakiss led the cluster of stormtroopers that surrounded Jaina,

  taking them down a corridor to the right. A larger group of guards, tense

  and with weapons at the ready, helped Tamith Kai to escort Lowbacca. The

  remaining guards closed around Jacen and led him off to the left.

  "Wait!" Jacen cried, and turned to look at his twin sister for what felt to

  him like the last time. Jaina stared back at him, her brandy-brown eyes wide

  with anxiety, but when she bravely lifted her chin, Jacen felt a surge of

  courage himself. They would find some way out of this.

  The guards hustled him down a long corridor until they stopped at one door

  in a line of identical-seeming doors. Student chambers, he thought. The door

  whisked open, and the stormtroopers herded Jacen into a small cubicle,

  bare-walled and uncomfortable. He saw no speaker panel on the wall, no

  controls, nothing that would let him communicate with anybody.

  "I'm staying in here?" he said in disbelief.

  'Yes," the lead stormtrooper said.

  "But what if I need something? How am I supposed to call out?" Jacen said.

  The trooper turned his skull-like plasteel mask to look directly at him.

  "Then you will endure until someone comes for you." The stormtroopers

  stepped back, and the door shut behind Jacen, closing him in, weaponless and

  alone.

  Then, to make things worse, all the lights went out.

  * 9 *

  Tenel Ka woke to pitch-darkness, cramped and confined, surrounded by a dull

  vibration. Her heart drummed a rapid cadence, and perspiration prickled her

  skin. An urgency, a feeling that something was terribly wrong, nudged the

  back of her mind. She tried to sit up and bumped her head, hard - against

  the unyielding bottom of the bunk above her. Stifling an exclamation of

  annoyance, she remembered that she was aboard the Off Chance. She relaxed

  slightly-but only slightly when they had finished with the Hutt information

  broker on Borgo Prime, Luke and Tenel Ka decided their best hope for finding

  Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca lay in going directly to Dathomir, homeworld of

  the original Nightsisters. Their only clue was the mysterious Nightsister,

  and they had to find out who she was and whether she had the twins and

  Lowbacca. Luke had urged Tenel Ka to get some sleep while they made their

  journey. It was the first opportunity she had had to rest since her friends

  had been kidnapped, and Tenel Ka gratefully accepted.

  And so she had slept, sealed away from light and sound, in one of the berths

  aboard the Off Chance, but her rest had again been disturbed by shadowy

  dreams. She touched a switch by her head and winced as bright cabin light

  flooded the sleeping cubicle. She rolled onto her stomach, swung her legs

  over the side of the bunk, and dropped a meter and a half to the floor of

  the cabin. Shaking back her tumble of loose red-gold hair, Tenel Ka

  stretched to her full height and noted with pleasure the freedom of movement

  that her tough, supple lizard-hide armor afforded her. She was glad to be

  dressed as a warrior again.

  The uneasy feeling left by her dream persisted as Tenel Ka made her way to

  the cockpit and lowered herself into the copilot's seat next to Luke. She

  gazed through the front viewport at the swirling colors that indicated the

  Off Chance was traveling through hyperspace.

  Luke looked up from the controls. "Did you get some sleep?"

  "This is a fact." She fastened the crash webbing around her, then grabbed a

  thick clump of her hair and began plaiting it into a braid, adding a few

  feathers and beads that she kept in a pouch attached to her belt.

  "But you didn't sleep well?"

  She blinked at this, somehow surprised that he had noticed. "This is also a

  fact."

  Luke did not reply. He simply waited, and with growing discomfort she

  realized he was waiting for her to explain.

  "I . . . had a dream," she said. "It is not important."

  His intense blue eyes searched her face. When he spoke, it was in a low

  voice. "I feel fear in you."

  She grimaced and shrugged. "It is a dream I have had before."

  His eyelids fluttered shut briefly, and he tilted his head as he might have

  done had he been studying her with his eyes open.

  'The Nightsisters?" he said at last.

  "Yes. It is childish," she admitted as color rushed to her cheeks, staining

  them with embarrassment.

  "Strange . . . I dreamt about them, too," Luke said.

  Tenel Ka looked at him in disbelief. "I used to think they were just a story

  that mothers and grandmothers on Dathomir told to scare children. But the

  Nightsisters were all destroyed. How could there be any left?"

  "The people of Dathomir are often strong in the Force, and it would not be

  difficult for someone else to train them in the ways of evil," he said. He

  leaned back in the pilot's seat and stared out at hyperspace as if summoning

  an old memory. "In fact, many years ago-before you were born-I traveled to

  Dathomir searching for Jacen and Jaina's parents, Han and Leia. That was

  when I met your mother and father, and we all joined forces to defeat the

  last of the Nightsisters."

&n
bsp; Tenel Ka looked at him curiously. This was a part of the story her parents

  spoke little about. "My mother thinks very highly of you," she said, hoping

  he would elaborate.

  Luke slid her a teasing glance. "But did she ever tell you how we met? That

  she captured me?"

  "You don't mean-" Tenel Ka began. "She couldn't have expected . . ."

  Luke chuckled at her discomfiture. "This is a fact."

  "Oh, Master Skywalker!" Tenel Ka gasped in chagrin at the very idea of Luke

  submitting to the primitive marriage customs she had always viewed as quaint

  and provincial. On Dathomir, a woman selected and captured the man she

  wanted to marry. Her mother, Teneniel Djo, had done that to Luke Skywalker?

  It brought a renewed flush of embarrassment to her face to realize that her

  mother had captured the greatest Jedi Master in the galaxy and had expected

  him to marry her and father her children. Then, all at once, the situation

  struck her as so ridiculous that she let loose with what was, for her, a

  rare sound indeed-a giggle.

  "My mother has always taught me to have respect for Jedi, and most of all

  for you, Master Skywalker, but . . . please do not be offended" she gasped,

  tears of mirth rising to her eyes - "I am certainly glad she did not

  succeed."

  Luke, still smiling, reached over and gave her shoulder an understanding