He watched as the antenna slowly swayed. The rawwks stirred but remained on their perches. Anyone else watching might have assumed the wind had shifted at that moment, but Gantoris knew he had done it.
“Good attempt. You have the right idea, but now close your eyes,” Skywalker said. “You’re letting your sight blind you. You know where the antenna is, you know where the rawwks are. You can sense their place in the Force. You don’t need to see with your eyes. Tighten your focus. Feel it, know what you want to do.”
Skeptical, Gantoris closed his eyes; but as he concentrated, he could indeed see vague outlines of what he had just looked at, tiny afterimages imprinted on the Force with tendrils reaching out and connecting them to everything else.
He reached out with his fingers to make the flicking gesture again but hesitated. He realized he did not need that either. Flicking the fingers was simply an example for Skywalker to make his point. Whatever actions he made, waving his hands or muttering spells were just so much mumbo jumbo. Understanding the Force was what allowed him to do what he needed.
Pleased with this sudden insight, Gantoris kept his eyes closed and folded his arms. He flicked out an imaginary finger, feeling the metal, picturing his fingernail striking the hard surface. In his head he heard the hollow bong as it struck, then opened his eyes to watch the five rawwks burst into flight, cawing at each other as if casting blame.
“Good!” Skywalker said. “I’m impressed. I thought this was going to be much more difficult.” Still grinning, he looked at Streen, who had been watching them in silence. “Would you like to try it? You have the potential. I could show you how.”
Streen balked. “No, I … I don’t think I could do that.”
“It isn’t as difficult as it looks,” Gantoris said. “You’ll feel a different strength come into you.”
“I don’t want to,” Streen said again, defensively. Then he lowered his eyes and patted his pockets, as if looking for something he didn’t expect to find. Gantoris thought he was just making distracted movements.
The old man swallowed, then looked back at Skywalker. “If you teach me how to use this … sense I have—can you also teach me how to switch it off? I want to learn how not to feel the people around me, not to be bombarded by their moods and prying thoughts and sour ideas. I’m tired of having only rawwks for company. I’d very much like to be part of the human race again.”
Skywalker clapped him on the shoulder. In his dark jumpsuit he looked like a benevolent god. “That much I can show you.”
Luke watched as Streen cut loose the fiber-chains holding his floating hodgepodge ship to the Tibannopolis docking area. Standing on the docking platform, he gave his ship an unnecessary shove out into the breezes. The empty barge of platforms and balloons, propellers and gas storage tanks, drifted out to be caught up by swirling air currents.
Streen had emptied the pockets in his jumpsuit and now looked at Luke. “I know I’m not coming back. That old life is over.”
The three of them climbed aboard Luke’s passenger shuttle and made ready to depart Bespin. Luke felt a glowing satisfaction, not just to be leaving the gas planet that held so many dark memories, but to have both passenger seats filled, to have two new candidates for his Jedi academy.
He raised the shuttle off the landing platform, then began a steep climb toward orbit. Below them, in the opposite direction, Streen’s abandoned platform continued drifting on its own, widening the gap between it and the derelict city.
Streen looked out the passenger window, staring with a bleak sadness that struck Luke’s heart with pity. Below, the ghost town of Tibannopolis was truly empty again.
Then Luke watched something amazing happen. The city came alive with movement, swarming as tiny black figures took to the air. Thousands and thousands of rawwks that had made their home with Streen suddenly took flight, departing the abandoned metropolis in a huge flock that kept coming and coming and coming, spreading out among the clouds in a farewell salute to Streen.
Looking out the window and watching this, Streen smiled.
13
Skynxnex inserted a new charge pack into his double-blaster, smiled at the weapon, then thrust it into the holster. “Thank you, Moruth,” he said. “You won’t regret this.”
Doole tapped his spongy fingers on the former warden’s desk. One of the loose iridescent insects fluttered around the room, battering itself again and again on the wide landscape window.
“Just try not to make a mess of it,” Doole said. “I want Solo gone and all traces removed. Nothing left. It’s only a matter of time before the New Republic comes nosing around. We’ve got to be absolutely clean. Is the energy shield functional yet?”
“We’re testing it this morning, and our engineers are confident it’ll work. Solo and the Wookiee will be dead by then,” Skynxnex said. “My personal guarantee.”
Doole’s lips curled like a rubbery gasket stretched out of shape. “Don’t enjoy yourself too much.”
Skynxnex smiled back at him and turned to leave. His black eyes glittered. “Only as much as necessary,” he said.
The mine car roared through the tunnels in total blackness. Han had no choice but to trust the computer guidance system.
Chewbacca had found the accelerator button and punched it repeatedly, trying to get farther away from the multilegged horror deep in the mines.
Han gripped the sides of the car with hands gone white from cold and terror. Each time they shot past a gaping side tunnel, his imagination heard noises of skittering legs and scythelike claws reaching out to pluck them from the passing car.
“Our course is taking us back to the muster room,” Kyp said. “This could be our chance to escape.”
“Where else should we go?” Han asked. He felt his heart pounding. Chewbacca groaned a question, and Han translated it. “Do you know any other way out of these tunnels?”
“I don’t,” Kyp said, “but maybe I could find one.”
Han fought to contain a sudden fit of shudders. “I don’t know about you, but I’m in no mood to go wandering through dark tunnels feeling for a way out—not with that thing chasing after us.” The thought of a freezing death in the energy-draining fangs of the monster made the option of imprisonment in the spice mines seem not so terrible after all.
Before they could form some sort of alternative plan, the floating mine cars coasted to a halt in the long holding chamber. The metal door at the far end slammed shut behind them. With his infrared goggles, Han could see the activation controls on the wall next to an inner door. His knees were weak; his hands trembled as he punched access for the muster room.
Light flooded around them, and the three survivors staggered inside, holding each other. Chewbacca used his hairy arms to keep both Han and Kyp on their feet.
Dazzled, Han cupped his hands over his eyes and let the infrared goggles dangle on his neck. “Boss Roke is dead,” he croaked to no one in particular. “There’s a monster in the tunnels. It attacked the guard. We barely got away.”
“Han—” Kyp said.
Chewbacca sniffed, then roared in anger.
Han fought to focus his vision. He heard people rustling in the muster room. He saw only shadows in the glare. Finally, he could make out a tall, gangly form with dark hair and sunken eyes on a skull-like face.
“Glad you’re back, Solo,” Skynxnex said from the other side of the room. He drew the double-blaster at his hip.
Everything seemed to move slowly for Han. He had not yet come down from the boost of adrenaline caused by utter terror. Han saw the gun, saw Skynxnex, saw the man’s cadaverous face. Doole had sent his henchman to kill them.
Han wasted no time, shoving Chewbacca backward. “Back in, Chewie! We’ve got to get out of here!” He yanked Kyp through the open doorway. Chewbacca let out a yowl and lunged into the dark chamber where the floating mine cars waited.
“Hey!” Skynxnex began to run in long, leaping strides that carried him across the muster room. Han s
ealed the door in his face, scrambling the lock mechanism.
“It’ll take him a second to figure the access code. Get in the car, now!” Han leaped onto the swaying pilot seat. “Looks like we’re going to try one of those alternatives you wanted, Kyp.”
He powered up the rocking vehicle. From the other side of the door came pounding and then the sounds of blasters striking the metal. Skynxnex was going to disintegrate his way through. They had to get to the relative safety of the tunnels right away.
Han punched up the computer guidance system and let the vehicle go. The great metal door on the far side of the long holding tunnel slid open with a grinding sound as the mine car accelerated back down the central tunnel from which they had just come.
“I hate to go back there,” Han said. Chewbacca roared a comment, and Han nodded. “Yeah, I hate even worse to be blasted.”
“Do you know Skynxnex?” Kyp asked, regaining his breath.
“We’re old buddies,” Han said. “That’s why he wants to kill us.”
The floating car rushed through the half-open metal gate just as the door from the muster room melted open, spilling a wedge of light into the tunnel.
“They’re only going to be a minute behind us,” Han said. With his infrared goggles he could see the pilot controls now—but none of the coordinates meant anything to him. The only exit he knew of was back through the muster room. “Any ideas, Kyp?”
“It’s an automated course,” Kyp said. “If I had time to think and get my bearings, I might be able to figure out something.”
“We don’t have that luxury right now.”
The great metal door did not close behind them after they passed through. Wind whipped past their ears as Han kept his finger on the accelerator button. From behind they heard shouts, other people climbing into waiting mine cars. Han leaned over the controls, but the repulsorlifts could go only so fast.
Unable to see, and without any knowledge of the labyrinth of underground tunnels, Han did not dare fly the car manually. He would have to hope he could get far enough ahead so that Skynxnex could not follow … but then what? They would be lost in the cold, dark maze. How many other multilegged monsters waited for them in the shadows?
The sound of another mine car came roaring up behind them. Han had three cars linked together, hauling three riders with only one engine. If Skynxnex and the others took one car each, they would travel faster. They would be in blaster range within moments.
“Solo!” Skynxnex bellowed.
“Hold on!” Kyp said.
Han instinctively braced himself as the computer guidance system yanked them to the left-hand fork in an unseen tunnel, then plunged them steeply downward. Before Han could wonder if they had lost their pursuers, he heard the echoing whine of repulsorlift vehicles soaring down the tunnel after them.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Han said. He looked behind them with his infrared goggles and saw the glowing target of Skynxnex and two other piloted vehicles. In the cold darkness his own body heat would be just as apparent to the pursuers.
Chewbacca held on to Kyp, pushing him down to safety in the second car. The Wookiee reached behind him, fumbling with the catch to the empty third car. Skynxnex and the two guards closed the gap. With a growl at the pursuers, Chewbacca decoupled the magnetic bearing from the third car.
Suddenly released, the empty car swung out behind them, dropping toward the ground. Skynxnex cried out as he swerved up to avoid a collision. The other two guards both curved to the left, battering into each other, but somehow all three pursuers kept their balance. They roared after Han.
“Nice try, Chewie,” Han said.
Skynxnex pulled out his modified double-blaster, powered it on, and aimed. When he fired, the two barrels sent their beams out at slight intersecting angles to each other. A short distance beyond the muzzle, the two beams coalesced and phased, forming a staccato series of bursts, each one containing a brief impulse of power ten times that of a single blaster beam. Though the weapon looked impressive, it was almost impossible to aim, and most other users—even hardened criminals—had dropped them in favor of more reliable weapons.
The phased double beam poured out, striking the ceiling of the tunnel ahead of Han. The explosion of heat and light blinded him through the infrared goggles. Somehow Kyp reacted with molten speed and yanked the floating car sideways. Miraculously, they swerved around the debris that fell from above, struck only by the patter of small pebbles.
“Everybody okay?” Han said.
Chewbacca grunted. “So far,” Kyp said.
Han turned to look as Skynxnex zoomed safely through the tiny avalanche he had caused. Falling rocks and debris pelted the next car, though, making it spin out of control. The car struck the rough tunnel wall in a shower of sparks, then exploded, spewing shards of metal everywhere.
“One down,” Kyp said.
Echoing sounds came from the open tunnel mouth ahead. Through the infrared goggles Han could see other spots of warmth, a caravan. They shot past the side tunnel just as another train of floating mine cars emerged.
“They’ve got reinforcements!” Han said in dismay. But then he saw the cars were all linked together—another mining party on its way back to the muster room at the end of a shift.
Skynxnex and the other guard plowed right into them. Their accelerating cars rode up and over, knocking three hapless workers out of their seats and leaving them blind and lost in the tunnel. The driver of the work train slewed out of the way, ramming into the rocky wall of the tunnel.
Skynxnex spun in the air but somehow kept his seat. The second guard fared even better, pulling up beside Skynxnex as they zoomed away from the site of the wreck and the shouting work crew.
Han had no idea where they were going, but they were getting farther and farther away from anyplace good. With Skynxnex and his double-blaster behind them, they had no choice but to keep fleeing deeper into the tunnels.
Ahead in the inky blackness a sudden clump of pearlescent glitters sprang out of a bare rock wall, wavering in the air. Then the luminescence started traveling down the tunnel away from them, as if trying to outrun the approaching cars.
“Another bogey!” Kyp cried.
Their floating car followed the bogey, closing the gap. But as they neared, the swirling glowing thing accelerated, as if taunting them by flying ahead, whipping around curves just in front of them. By the faint glow Han could actually see the winding curves of rock.
Skynxnex and the other pursuer zoomed along in their wake.
“Uh-oh,” Kyp said. “I think I just figured out what course we’re on. All this feels very familiar.”
“What?” Han said. “How can you tell?”
“The most recent set of destination coordinates in this navigation computer was programmed by Boss Roke. We’re going back down to where that monster was!”
The glowing bogey roiled ahead of them, dipping up and down but refusing to pop back into the spice-covered walls. As it rushed along, the bogey’s bodily illumination activated threadlike veins of glitterstim, leaving a patchwork of blue sparks in their wake.
In a long, straight stretch of tunnel Skynxnex fired his double-blaster again.
As if he could sense the blast coming, Kyp rocked the car to one side as the intense pulsed bolt shot down the tube, passed through the bogey without harming it, and struck a distant wall. The impact blew open a huge aperture into another grotto.
Seeing an escape, the bogey ducked through the new opening.
“Put it on manual,” Kyp said. “Let me fly it.” By now their eyes had grown accustomed to the bogey’s glow, and they could actually see where they were going.
“I don’t want a free return trip to where that monster is waiting.” Han relinquished the controls. Without a moment’s pause Kyp launched the car into the wide-open section of wall that led to an unknown maze.
“This is the same series of tunnels,” Kyp said.
As they plunged into the new gr
otto, something long and fibrous stung Han’s face like a sharp wire whipping past him.
The bogey shot into the vast chamber, flying across the darkness to the far wall. Upon striking the rock face, though, it did not melt through and vanish as the first bogey had done days earlier. Instead, the glowing ball stuck on the rough rock surface. It glittered and spangled and pulsed, as if struggling.
Another whiplike strand struck Han’s face as they flew through the air.
Around the bogey in the glow, wide veins of spice fizzled blue as the illumination activated them. The light crackled and spread outward in a network, geometrical crisscrossings along the wall. All of the spice in the chamber began to race around in long lines as the light increased in a chain reaction. The pattern looked familiar.
“Like a web!” Han said.
The bogey struggled frantically as the spice around it grew brighter and brighter. Han saw long fibers of free-hanging glitterstim draped through the open air of the grotto.
From behind them Skynxnex fired again in a long continuous blast that missed them in the wide space. The powerful pulsed beam struck the far ceiling of the chamber, making it erupt with hot broken stone that poured down from the roof of the tunnel. The images in Han’s infrared goggles were blindingly bright.
The bogey stretched and struggled as parts of the spice web tore away in the avalanche, yanking portions of the glow with it.
Then Han saw the monstrous creature rise up from its lair on the grotto floor—a huge spider made of blown glass, all sharp edges, with a hundred legs and a thousand eyes. The bristling legs moved in a blur as it clambered up the debris toward the glowing bogey struggling in the spice web.
Han wrenched the floating car around, ready to plow his way out and away from the monster that had almost captured him in the tunnels—even if he had to fly right down Skynxnex’s throat.
Star Wars: The Jedi Academy Trilogy I: Jedi Search Page 17