Shadow Academy

by Kevin J. Anderson

  She understood his intention immediately, and moved to do as he asked.

  Within moments they had the gyrating, disoriented Nightsister deposited and

  sealed within the pod. Tenel Ka's hand hovered above the automatic jettison

  switch. Luke nodded. With great satisfaction, she triggered the launch.

  With a whoosh and a thump, the escape pod containing Garowyn shot out into

  deep space.

  "Master Skywalker," Tenel Ka said, her face serious, "I believe I now

  understand how it might be possible, as you said, to . . . Turn a

  situation."

  Luke looked at her, blinked once in amazement, and laughed. "Tenel Ka," he

  said, "I believe you just made a joke. Jacen would be proud of you."

  Later that day, when they dropped out of hyperspace and the autopilot

  alerted them that they were about to arrive at their destination, Luke and

  Tenel Ka sat in the cockpit looking vainly for a planet, a space station,

  anything on which they might land.

  But they saw nothing.

  Tenel Ka turned to Luke in confusion. "Could the autopilot have

  malfunctioned?" she asked. "Did we have the wrong coordinates?"

  "No," he said, seeming calm and self-assured. "We must wait."

  Then, as if a curtain had suddenly been drawn aside, they saw it: a space

  station. A Shadow Academy , Tenel Ka reminded herself. A spiked

  torus spinning in space, protected by exterior gun emplacements and crowned

  with several tall observation towers.

  "It must have been cloaked," Luke said.

  As they approached the Shadow Academy , docking-bay doors opened

  automatically, and Luke placed a reassuring hand on Tenel's shoulder. "The

  dark side is not stronger," he said.

  Tenel Ka let out a long breath, and some of her tension drained away with

  it.

  "This is a fact," she whispered.

  * 20 *

  During the Shadow Academy 's sleep period, all students were locked

  in their individual chambers and told to rest and meditate, to recharge

  their energies for further strenuous exercises. It was just part of the

  Imperial rules, and most students followed them without question.

  Jacen sat alone in his small cubicle, bruised and aching from the training

  ordeal. He dampened one of his socks and used it to soothe the many cuts and

  scrapes he had received from the sharp rocks and knives. He and Jaina had

  requested simple pain relievers, but Tamith Kai had flatly refused,

  insisting that the aches would serve to toughen them up. Each twinge of pain

  was supposed to remind them of their failure to deflect a ball or stone. He

  used what he knew of the Force to dull the worst of the pain, but it still

  hurt. Jacen sat cross-legged, trying furiously to figure out some escape

  before Brakiss launched another raid on Yavin 4 to grab more of Uncle Luke's

  trainees.

  His sister Jaina was always best at making complicated plans. She understood

  how things worked, how pieces fit together. Jacen, on the other hand, who

  liked to live in the moment and enjoy what he was doing, was a bit more

  disorganized. He managed to get things done - but not always in the same

  order he had originally planned. Maybe the most important step was to free

  Jaina and Lowie. After that, they could decide what to do next. Of course,

  the biggest question was how Jacen could free them all from their cells.

  Then he remembered his Corusca gem.

  Jacen nearly laughed out loud-why hadn't he thought of it before? He grabbed

  for his left boot, shook it, and was startled to hear nothing. Then he

  recalled he had put the stone in his other boot. He picked it up and dumped

  the precious jewel into his cupped hand. Smooth on one side, with sharp

  edges and facets on the other, the Corusca gem glowed with internal

  fire-trapped light from when it had formed deep in Yavin's core ages ago.

  Lando Calrissian had said a Corusca gem could slice through transparisteel

  as easily as a laser through Sullustan jam. But then, Lando said a lot of

  things that couldn't entirely be believed. Jacen hoped this wasn't one of

  them.

  Jacen held the jewel between his thumb and his first two fingers and went to

  the sealed door. When Tamith Kai and her Imperial forces had stormed

  GemDiver Station, they had used a large machine fitted with industrial-grade

  Corusca gems to cut through the armored walls. Surely Jacen's little gem

  could cut through a thin wall plate. . . .

  He ran his fingers along the smooth metal near where the door sealed. Jacen

  wished he understood machinery and electronics like his sister did, but he

  would do his best. He didn't think that he could cut through the whole door

  using only the strength in his fingers, but Jacen knew where the control

  panel was.

  Perhaps he could peel back this side of the plate, get to the wires, and

  somehow trigger the door to open, though he hadn't the slightest idea how to

  do it.

  Still, he took the gem, found where the control box should be, and probed

  lightly with the Force. He sensed a power source here, tangled controls.

  This was it. Jacen drew a generous rectangle with the gem, easily scratching

  a thin white line in the metal plate. A good start, he thought.

  Pressing harder this time, Jacen retraced the rectangle, feeling the sharp

  edge of the gem gouging deeper into the metal. After his third effort, his

  fingers hurt, but he could see that he had made a substantial cut through

  the plate. His pulse raced, and excitement gave him new energy. He forgot

  all about his aches and pains. One side cut through and bent inward. Jacen

  gasped. Almost there. He sawed away at the long side of the rectangle. With

  a clink, the metal parted. The last two sides were easier, and he sliced

  through them quickly. The metal rectangle slipped from Jacen's sore fingers

  and fell to the floor with a loud clatter. "Oh, blaster bolts!" he muttered.

  He was sure the other Shadow Academy students would wake up and that

  stormtroopers would come running.

  But outside, the halls remained utterly silent, as if a cloth gag were bound

  around the station, muffling all sound. Everyone remained locked in their

  quarters. Only a few guards wandered the halls at night. Jacen was safe for

  the time being. He peered into the hole he had cut, looking with dismay at

  the mass of wires and circuits that controlled the door. Okay, _what would

  Jaina do?_ he wondered.

  He closed his eyes and let his mind open up, tracing the lines of the wires

  and circuits. Some ran to communications systems, or computer terminals

  mounted at regular intervals along the corridors, or lights, or thermostats.

  Some ran to alarms, and others . . . connected to the door mechanism! Jacen

  took a steadying breath. Now, what to do with those wires? He probably

  needed to cross them, but in a particular way. There was nothing to do but

  try it. With aching fingers, Jacen disconnected one of the wires in the

  cluster he had isolated and touched it to another, careful that the exposed,

  electrified ends didn't touch his bare skin. A little spark flashed, and the

  lights in his room flickered, but nothing else happened. He tried with the

  second wire and
got no response at all.

  Jacen hoped he wasn't setting off silent alarms in the guard stations. He

  sighed. What if none of this worked? Well, he reasoned, then he might have

  to slice directly through the door after all. He shook his stinging fingers,

  anticipating the pain. First, he decided, he would try the last set of

  wires. As if sensing Jacen's impending despair, the door slid quietly open

  when he touched the wires together.

  Jacen laughed aloud and looked out into the empty corridor. He glanced from

  side to side, but saw only a string of sealed, featureless doors. Glowpanels

  lit the metallic corridors at half illumination, conserving power during the

  academy's sleep period. The door controls looked much easier from the

  outside, and he didn't think he would have any trouble freeing Jaina and

  Lowie - once he found them.

  It proved less difficult than Jacen had feared. He had seen the corridors

  down which the guards usually led Jaina and Lowie, so he went in that

  direction, calling with his mind. Jaina will be the easiest, he thought. He

  tiptoed along, afraid that at any moment stormtroopers would come marching

  around the corner. But the Shadow Academy remained silent and

  asleep. Jaina, he thought. Jaina! Jacen walked along, listening at each of

  the doors. He didn't want to cause too much of a disturbance, because the

  Dark Jedi students might sound an alarm if they noticed him.

  At the seventh door he found her. Jacen sensed his sister, awake and

  excited, knowing he was out there. He worked the controls until her door

  slid open. Jaina burst out, hugging him. "I've been expecting you," she

  said.

  "Used my Corusca gem," he explained, pointing toward his boot, where he had

  stashed the stone again.

  Jaina nodded, as if she had known all along what her brother would do.

  "We've got to find Lowie and free him, too , Jacen said.

  "Of course," Jaina agreed. "We'll escape and warn Uncle Luke before Brakiss

  makes his raid on the Jedi academy."

  "Right," Jacen said with a lopsided grin. "Uh, since I got us this far, I

  was hoping you could figure out the rest of the plan."

  Jaina beamed at him as if he had paid her the highest compliment she could

  imagine. "Already have," she said. "What are we waiting for?"

  They managed to find Lowie, who was excited to see them, and Em Teedee, who

  was not. "I feel obligated to warn you that I simply must sound an alarm,"

  the translating droid said. "My duty is to the Empire now and it's my

  responsibility-"

  Jaina gave the little droid a rap with her knuckles. "If you make so much as

  a peep," she said, 'we 'II rewire your vocal circuits so that you talk

  backwards and they'll toss you in the scrap heap."

  "You wouldn't!" Em Teedee said in a huff.

  "Wanna bet?" Jaina asked in a dangerously sweet voice. Jacen stood next to

  her and glared at the miniaturized translating droid. Lowie added his own

  threatening growl.

  "Oh, all right, all right," Em Teedee said. "But I submit to this only under

  stringent protest. The Empire is, after all, our friend."

  Jaina snorted. "No it isn't. Think we may need to arrange for a complete

  brain wipe when we get you back to Yavin 4."

  "Oh, dear me," Em Teedee said.

  Jaina looked around, casting her gaze from one end of the silent corridor to

  the other. She rubbed her hands together and bit her lower lip, considering

  options. "All right, this is the plan." She pointed to one of the corridor

  terminals. "Lowie," she said, "can you use that computer to slice into the

  main station controls? I need you to drop the Shadow Academy 's

  cloaking device and also seal all the doors so that no one gets out of their

  quarters. No sense inviting trouble for ourselves."

  Lowie made a sound of optimistic agreement.

  "Lowbacca, you aren't capable of accomplishing all of that," Em Teedee said,

  "and I'm certain you know it." Lowie growled at him.

  "If we can all get to the shuttle bay," Jaina continued, "I think I can

  pilot one of the ships out of here. I've trained in simulators for various

  craft, and you know I was ready to fly that TIE fighter before Qorl took

  it."

  Lowie tapped the keyboard of the computer terminal with his long hairy

  fingers. He hunched low to stare at the screen, which was not mounted for

  someone of Wookiee stature. Lowie called up the screens he needed, showing

  the status of the Shadow Academy 's shuttle bay.

  "Perfect," Jaina said. "A new ship just came in, still powered up and ready

  to go. We'll take that one, as soon as Lowie locks everyone in their rooms."

  Lowbacca grunted in agreement and kept working, but he soon encountered an

  impenetrable wall of security passwords. He groaned in frustration.

  "Well, there now, you see?" Em Teedee said. "I told you you couldn't do it

  by yourself."

  Lowie growled, but Jaina brightened as an idea struck her. "He's right," she

  said. "But Em Teedee was reprogrammed by the Empire. Why not plug him into

  the main computer and let him get through for us?" She plucked the small

  translating droid from the clip at Lowbacca's waist and began opening Em

  Teedee's back access panel.

  "I most certainly will not," Em Teedee said. "I simply couldn't. It would be

  disloyal to the Empire and completely inappropriate for me to-" Lowie made a

  threatening sound, and Em Teedee fell silent.

  Working rapidly, with nimble fingers, Jaina pulled wires, electrical leads,

  and input jacks from the droid's head case and plugged them into appropriate

  ports on the Shadow Academy s computer terminal.

  "Oh, my," Em Teedee said. "Ah, this is much better. I can see so many

  things! I feel as if my brain is full to overflowing. A wealth of

  information awaits me-"

  "The passwords, Em Teedee," Jaina said, reaching toward the recalcitrant

  droid.

  "Oh, dear me, yes. Of course - the passwords!" Em Teedee said hastily.

  "But I remind you, I really shouldn't."

  "Just do it," Jaina snapped.

  "Ah, yes, here it is. But don't blame me if the whole lot of stormtroopers

  comes after you."

  The screen winked, displaying the files Lowbacca had been trying to access.

  Jacen and Jaina sighed with relief, and Lowie made a pleased sound. His

  ginger-furred fingers were a blur as he descended rapidly through menu after

  menu, finally penetrating all the way into the station computer's main core.

  With two swift commands Lowie shut down the Shadow Academy 's

  cloaking device. Then, with a resounding clunk that echoed throughout the

  station, he closed and sealed every door except those the three of them

  would need to escape. He yowled in triumph. Belatedly, the station alarms

  went off, screeching and grating with a harsh, piercing sound, unpleasant as

  only Imperial engineers could make it.

  Lowie unplugged Em Teedee. "There, I tried to warn you," the silvery droid

  said. "But you wouldn't listen, would you?"

  * 21 *

  Brakiss sat contemplating in his dim office, long after the other workers

  had retired for the night. He reveled in the dramatic images on his walls:

  galacti
c disasters in progress, the fury of the universe unleashed like a

  storm around him with Brakiss as its calm center, able to touch those

  immense forces but not be affected by them.

  Brakiss had just written up the plans for a swift attack on Yavin 4 so that

  he could steal more of Master Skywalker's Jedi students. He had sent the

  encoded message deep into the Core Systems to the great Imperial leader, who

  had immediately approved his plans. The leader was eager to get more

  ready-chosen Jedi students to train as dark warriors.

  The assault would occur in the next few days, while Skywalker was no doubt

  still reeling from the loss of the twins and the Wookiee, perhaps even away

  from Yavin 4 looking for them. Tamith Kai would go along for the assault.

  She needed the outlet to vent her anger, to drain some of the rage she kept

  bottled within herself. That way she could be more effective.

  Brakiss stood and looked at the blindingly bright image of the Denaiii Nova,

  two suns pouring fire onto each other. Something was bothering him. He

  couldn't quite put his finger on it. The day had gone routinely The three

  young Jedi Knights were doing even better than he'd expected. But still

  Brakiss had a bad feeling, a low-level uneasiness. He walked slowly out of

  his chambers, his silvery robes flickering around him like candlelight. He

  let the door of his office remain open as he turned to scrutinize the empty

  corridor. Everything was quiet, just as it should have been.