Book 1

The Rise of the Shadow Academy

Heirs of the Force

by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

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1

Jacen Solo had stayed at Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy for about a month before he managed to set up his room the way he wanted it.

Within an ancient temple on the jungle moon of Yavin 4, the student quarters were dank and dim, cold every night. But Jacen and his twin sister Jaina had spent days scrubbing the moss-covered stone blocks of their adjoining rooms, adding glowpanels and portable corner-warmers.

The son of Han Solo and Princess Leia stood now in the orangish morning light that spilled through the slit windows in the thick temple walls.

Outside in the jungle, large birds shrieked as they fought for their insect breakfasts.

As he did every morning before going to Uncle Luke's lessons, Jacen fed and took stock of all the bizarre and exotic creatures he had collected out in the unexplored jungles on Yavin 4. He liked to gather new pets.

The far wall was stacked with bins and cages, transparent display cages and bubbling aquariums. Many of the containers were ingenious contraptions invented by his mechanically inclined sister. He appreciated Jaina's inventions, though he couldn't understand why she was more interested in the cages themselves than the creatures they contained.

One cage rattled with two clamoring stintarils, tree-dwelling rodents with protruding eyes and long jaws filled with sharp teeth. Stintarils would swarm across the arboreal highways, never slowing down, eating anything that sat still long enough fqr them to take a bite. Jacen had had a fun time catching these two.

In a damp, transparent enclosure tiny swimming crabs used sticky mud to build complex nests with small towers and curving battlements. In a rounded water bowl pinkish mucous salamanders swam formlessly, diluted and without shape, until they crawled out onto a perching shelf; then they hardened their outer membranes to a soft jellylike form with pseudopods and a mouth, allowing them to hunt among the insects in the weeds. In another cage strung with thick, tough wires, iridescent blue piranha-beetles crawled around with clacking jaws, constantly trying to chew their way free. Out in the jungle a wild swarm of piranha-beetles could descend with a thin deadly whine. When they set upon their prey, the beetles could turn a large animal to gnawed bones in minutes. Jacen was proud to have the only specimens in captivity in his menagerie.

Often Jacen's most difficult job was not keeping the exotic pets caged but figuring out what they ate. Sometimes they fed on fruit or flowers.

Sometimes they devoured fresh meat chunks. Sometimes the larger ones even broke free of their confinement and ate the other specimens-much to Jacen's dismay.

Unlike Jacen and Jaina's strict tutors at home on the city-covered planet Coruscant, Luke Skywalker did not depend on a rigorous course of studies.

To be a Jedi, Uncle Luke explained, one had to understand many pieces of the whole tapestry of the galaxy, not just a rigid pattern set by other people.

So Jacen was allowed to spend much of his free time tromping through the dense underbrush, pushing jungle weeds and flowers out of the way, collecting beautiful insects, scooping up rare and unusual fungi. He had always had a strange and deep affinity for living creatures, much as his sister had a talent for understanding machinery and gadgets. He could coax the animals with his special Force talent, getting them to come right up to him, where he could study them at his leisure.

Some of the Jedi students-especially spoiled and troublesome Raynar-were not pleased about the small zoo Jacen kept in his room. But Jacen studied the creatures, and took care of them, and learned much from the animals.

From a small cistern Jaina had installed in the wall, Jacen ladled cool water into trays inside the cages. His motion disturbed a family of purple jumping spiders so that they hopped and bounced against the netting of the cage roof.

He ran his fingers along the thin wires and whispered to them. "Calm down. It's all right." The spiders stopped their antics and settled down to drink through their long, hollow fangs.

In another cage, the whisper birds had fallen silent, possibly hungry.

Jacen would have to collect some fresh nectar funnels from the vines growing in the stones of the crumbling temple across the river.

It was almost time to go to morning lessons. Jacen tapped the sides of the containers, saying good-bye to his pets. Just before turning to leave, though, he hesitated. He peered into the bottommost container, where the transparent crystal snake usually sat coiled in a bed of dry leaves.

The crystal snake was nearly invisible, and Jacen could see it only by looking at the creature in a certain light. But now, no matter which way he looked, he saw no glitter of glassy scales, no rainbowish curve of light that bent around the transparent creature. Alarmed, he leaned down and discovered that the bottom corner of the cage had been bent upward .

. . just enough for a thin serpent to slither out.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jacen said, unconsciously echoing the words his father so often used.

The crystal snake was not particularly dangerous-at least Jacen didn't think so. He did know from firsthand experience that the bite of the snake brought a moment of piercing pain, and then the victim fell into a deep sleep. Even though after an hour or so one would wake up and feel no ill effects, this was the sort of hazard someone like Raynar might use to cause trouble and perhaps force Jacen to move his pets to an outside storage module.

And now the crystal snake was loose.

His heart started racing with fear, but he remembered to use one of his uncle Luke's Jedi relaxation techniques to keep himself calm, to help him think more clearly. Jacen knew immediately what he had to do: he would have his sister Jaina help him find the snake before anyone noticed it was gone.

He slipped out into the dim hall, his dark round eyes flicking from side to side to check for anyone who might notice him. Then he ducked into the next rounded stone doorway and stood blinking in the shadows of his sister's room.

One entire wall of Jaina's quarters was filled with neatly stacked containers of spare parts, cyberfuses, electronic circuit loops, and tiny gears taken from dismantled and obsolete droids. She had removed unused power packs and control systems from the old Rebel war room deep in the inner chambers of the temple pyramid.

The ancient temple had once been headquarters for the secret Rebel base hidden in the jungles on this isolated moon, long be fore the twins had been born. Their mother, Princess Leia, had helped the Rebels defend their base against the Empire's terrible Death Star; their father, Han Solo, had been just a smuggler at the time, but he had rescued Luke Skywalker at the end.

Now, though, most of the old equipment from the empty Rebel base lay unused and forgotten by the Jedi trainees. Jaina spent her free time tinkering with it, putting the components together in new ways. Her room was crammed with so much large equipment that Jacen barely had enough space to squeeze inside. He looked around, but saw no sign of the escaped crystal snake.

"Jaina?" he said. "Jaina, I need your help!" He looked around the dim room, trying to find his sister. He smelled the sharp, biting odor of scorched fuses, heard the clunk of a heavy tool against metal.

"Just a minute." Jaina's voice echoed hollowly inside the barrel-shaped hulk of corroded machinery that took up half of her quarters. He remembered when the two of them, with the help of their muscular female friend Tenel Ka, had somewhat clumsily used their Force powers to haul the heavy machine along the winding corridors so Jaina could work on it in her room far into the night.

"Hurry!" Jacen said, feeling the urgency grow. Jaina squirmed backward out of an opening in the intake pipe. Her dark brown hair was straight and simple, tied back with a string to keep it away from her narrow face.

Smudges of grease made hash marks on her left cheek.

Though her shoulder-length hair was as rich and thick as her mother's, Jaina never wanted to take the time to twist and tangle it into the lovely, convoluted hairstyles for which Princess Leia had been so famous.

Jacen extended his hand to help her to her feet. "My crystal snake's loose again! We have to find it. Have you seen it?"

She took little notice of his words. "No, I've been busy in here. Almost finished, though." She pointed down at the grimy pumping machinery. "When this is all done well be able to install it in the river next to the temple. The flowing water can turn the wheels and charge all of our batteries." Her words picked up speed as she began to talk. Once Jaina got started, she loved to explain things.

Jacen tried to interrupt, but could find no pause in her speech. "But, my snake-"

"With phased output jacks we can divert power to the Great Temple, provide all the light we need. With special protein skimmers added on, we could extract algae from the water and process it into food. We could even power all of the academy's communication systems and-"

Jacen stopped her. "Jaina, why are you spending all your time doing this?

Don't we have dozens of permanent power cells left over from the old Rebel base?"

She sighed, making him feel as if he had missed some deeply important point. "I'm not building this because it's useful," she said. "I'm doing it to see if I can. Once I know I can do it, I won't have to waste time anymore wondering whether anything I learn here is useful or not."

Jacen was still not sure he understood. But then, his sister never could grasp his fascination for living creatures. "In the meantime, Jaina, could you help me find my snake? It's loose. I don't know where to look for it,"

"All right," Jaina said, brushing her dirty hands on her stained work overall. "If the snake escaped from your room, it probably moved down the corridor."

The two of them stepped out into the long hall. Side by side, they scanned the shadows and listened.

Jacen's room was the last chamber in one of the temple passages leading to a cold, cracked stone wall. But none of the cracks was wide enough for the crystal snake to hide in.

"Well have to check from room to room," Jaina said.

Jacen nodded. "If somethings wrong, we should be able to sense it. Maybe I can use the Force to track the snake, wherever it might be hiding."

They heard the other Jedi students in their quarters dressing, washing up, or maybe just catching a few extra minutes of sleep. Jacen cocked his ears and listened, half-hoping to hear someone scream out loud, because then he would know where the snake had gone.

They slipped from room to room, pausing at closed doors. Jacen touched his fingers to the wood, but he caught no tingling sensa tion that might indicate his escaped pet.

But when they came to Raynar's half-open door, they immediately sensed something out of the ordinary. Peering inside, the twins spotted the boy sprawled on the polished stone tiles of the floor.

Raynar wore fine garments of purple, gold, and scarlet cloth, the colors of his noble family's house. Despite Uncle Luke's gentle suggestions, Raynar rarely took off his fancy costume, never allowed himself to be seen in drab but comfortable Jedi training clothes.

Raynar's bristly blond hair shone like flecks of gold dust in the morning sunlight spilling into his room through the window slits. His flushed cheeks sagged in and blew out as he snored softly in an awkward position on the cold tile floor.

"Oh, blaster bolts!" Jacen said. "I think we've found my snake."

Jaina slid the door closed and stationed herself by the crack so the crystal snake couldn't get past her.

Jaeen knelt beside Raynar's form and let his eyelids flutter closed. He stretched his fingers into the air, and his knuckles cracked. He let his mind flow, imagining what a snake's thoughts might be like. As usual he felt many things at once through the Force, but he focused down, looking for his snake.

He sensed a slim, languid line of thought, an easily satisfied mind that right now felt cozy and safe. Its only thoughts were warm, warm . . .

sleep, sleep . . . and quiet. The coiled-up crystal snake dozed beneath Raynar in the folds of his purple under-robes.

"Here, Jaina," Jacen whispered. She left the door to crouch beside him.

The fabric of her stained overall hissed like another snake as she dropped to her knees.

"I suppose it's directly under Raynar's body?"

Jacen nodded. "Yes, where it's warmest."

"That's a problem," Jaina said. "I could roll him over, and you grab the snake."

"No, that would disturb it," Jacen said. "It might bite Raynar again."

Jaina frowned. "He'd sleep through a week's worth of classes."

"Yeah," Jacen said, "but then at least Uncle Luke could finish a lecture without getting interrupted by Raynar's questions."

Jaina giggled. "You've got a point there."

Jacen sensed the coiled snake with his mind, saw it resting peacefully; but just then, as if Raynar had heard them talking about him, the boy snorted and stirred in his sleep.

The snake surged with alarm. Jacen quickly sent out a calming message, using Jedi relaxation techniques Luke had taught him. He sent peaceful thoughts, quieting thoughts, that calmed not only the serpent but Raynar as well.

"Working together, we could use our Jedi powers to lift Raynar up," Jacen suggested. "Then I'll pull the snake out from underneath him."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina said, looking at her brother with raised eyebrows.

Closing their eyes, the twins concentrated. They touched the fringes of Raynar's colorful robes with their fingertips as they imagined how light he could be ... that he was merely a feather wafting into the air... that he weighed nothing at all, and they could make him drift upward. . . .

Jacen held his breath, and the still-snoring Jedi student began to rise from the tiled floor. Raynar's loose garments dangled like curtains underneath him, freeing the sleepy snake.

Suddenly deprived of its warm hiding place, the crystal snake woke up in anger, instinctively wanting to lash out. Jacen sensed it uncoiling and seeking a living target, ready to strike.

"Hold Raynar!" he shouted to Jaina as he flashed forward to snatch the slithering crystal snake. His fingers, wrapped around its neck, grasping it behind the compact triangular head. He sent focused calming thoughts into the small reptilian brain, quelling its anger, soothing it.

Jacen's quick movement and release of the Force startled Jaina, and she managed to hold Raynar up for only a second or two. As Jacen worked to calm the serpent, Jaina's grip on the floating boy weakened and finally broke.

Raynar tumbled to the hard stone floor in a pile of arms and legs and garishly colored cloth. The thud of impact was enough to wake him even from a snake-drugged sleep. He sat up with a grunt, blinking his blue eyes and shaking his head.

Jacen continued to calm the invisible snake hidden in his hand. He sent tingling thoughts into its mind until the serpent fizzed with pleasure.

Content, it wrapped itself around Jacen's wrist, resting its flat, transparent head on his clenched fist. Even in the best of light it barely shimmered. Its scales were like a thin film of diamonds, its black eyes like two bits of charcoal.

Groggy, Raynar looked at the dark-haired twins standing next to him. He scratched his head in confusion. "Jacen? Jaina? Well, well, well, what are you-hey!" He sat up straighter and shook his left arm as if it had gone numb. Then he glared at Jacen.

"I thought I saw one of your... your creatures in here, just for a minute. And that's the last thing I remember. Is one of your pets loose?"

Embarrassed, Jacen slid his snake-covered hand behind his back. "No," he said, "I can honestly say that all of my pets are com pletely accounted for."

Jaina bent down to help the other Jedi boy to his feet. "You must have just fallen asleep, Raynar. You really should have gone to your sleeping pallet if you were so tired." She brushed his clothes off. "Now look, you've got dust all over your pretty robes."

Raynar looked in alarm at the smudges of dust and dirt on his gaudy garments. "Now I'll have to put on a whole new outfit. I can't be seen in public like this!" He brushed his fingers over the cloth in dismay.

"We'll let you get changed then," Jacen said, backing toward the door.

"See you at the lecture."

Jacen and Jaina ducked out of Raynar's room. Feeling suddenly bold enough to joke, Jacen waved good-bye with the hand that still carried the invisible crystal snake.

Together, the twins raced back to their quarters so they could put on their own robes in time to hear Luke teach them how to become Jedi Knights.

2

Jaina ducked back into her quarters to change into fresh clothes as Jacen ran to stash the crystal snake in its cage. She splashed cold water on her face from the new cistern in her bedroom wall.

Her face still damp and tingling, she stepped out into the corridor.

"Hurry, or we'll be late," she said as Jacen ran to join her.

Together, the twins dashed to the turbolift, which took them to the upper levels of the pyramid-shaped temple. They entered the echoing space of the grand audience chamber. The air was a bustling hum of other Jedi candidates assembling in the huge room where Luke Skywalker spoke every day.

Shafts of morning light glinted off the polished stone surfaces. The light carried an orange cast reflected from the orange gas giant hanging in the sky-the planet Yavin, around which the small jungle moon orbited.

Dozens of other Jedi trainees of varying ages and species found their places in the rows of stone seats spread out across the long, sloped floor. To Jaina, it looked as if someone had splashed a giant stone down on the stage, sending parallel waves of benches rippling toward the back of the chamber.

A mixture of languages and sounds came to Jaina's ears, along with the rich open-air smell that came from the uncharted jungles outside. She sniffed, but could not identify the different perfumes from flowers in bloom-though Jacen probably knew them all by heart. Right now, she smelled the musty body odors of alien Jedi candidates-matted fur, sunbaked scales, sweet-sour pheromones.

Jacen followed her to a set of empty seats, past two stout, pink-furred beasts that spoke to each other in growls. As she sat on the slick, cool seat, Jaina looked up at the squared-off temple ceilings, at the many different shapes and colors mounted in mosaics of alien patterns.

"Every time we come in here," she said, "I think of those old videoclips of the ceremony where Mother handed out medals to Uncle Luke and Dad. She looked so pretty." She put a hand up to her straight, unstyled hair.

"Yeah, and Dad looked like such a ... such a pirate," Jacen said.

"Well, he was a smuggler in those days," Jaina answered.

She thought of the Rebel soldiers who had survived the attack on the first Death Star, those who had fought against the Empire in the great space battle to destroy the terrible super-weapon. Now, more than twenty years later, Luke Skywalker had turned the abandoned base into a training center for Jedi hopefuls, rebuilding the Order of Jedi Knights.

Luke himself had begun training other Jedi back when the twins were barely two years old. Now he often left on his own missions and spent only part of his time at the academy, but it remained open under the direction of other Jedi Knights Luke had trained.

Some of the trainees had virtually no Force potential, content to be mere historians of Jedi lore. Others had great talent, but had not yet begun their full training. It was Luke's philosophy, though, that all potential Jedi could learn from each other. The strong could learn from the weak, the old could learn from the young-and vice versa.

Jacen and Jaina had come to Yavin 4, sent by their mother Leia to be trained for part of the year. Their younger brother Anakin had remained at home back on the capital world of Coruscant, but he would be coming to join them soon.

Off and on during their childhood, Luke Skywalker had helped the children of Han Solo and Princess Leia to learn their powerful talent. Here on Yavin 4 they had nothing to do but study and practice and train and learn-and so far it had been much morel interesting than the curriculum the stuffy educational droids had developed for them back on Coruscant.

"Where's Tenel Ka?" Jaina scanned the crowd, but saw no sign of their friend from the planet Dathomir.

"She should be here," Jacen said. "This morning I saw her go out to do her exercises in the jungle."

Tenel Ka was a devoted Jedi who worked hard to attain her dreams. She had little interest in the bookish studies, the histories and the meditations; but she was an excellent athlete who preferred action to thinking. That was a valuable skill for a Jedi, Luke Skywalker had told her-provided Tenel Ka knew when it was appropriate.

Their friend was impatient, hard-driven, and practically humorless. The twins had taken it as a challenge to see if they could make her laugh.

"She'd better hurry," Jacen said as the room began to quiet. "Uncle Luke is going to start soon."

Catching a movement out of the corner of her eye, Jaina looked up at one of the skylights high on a wall of the tall chamber. The lean, supple silhouette of a young girl edged onto the narrow stone windowsill. "Ah, there she is!"

"She must have climbed the temple from the back," Jacen said. "She was always talking about doing that, but I never thought she'd try."

"Plenty of vines over there," Jaina answered logically, as if scaling the enormous ancient monument was something Jedi students did every day.

As they watched, Tenel Ka used a thin leather thong to tie her long rusty-gold hair behind her shoulders to keep it out of her way. Then the muscular girl flexed her arms. She attached a silvery grappling hook to the edge of the stone sill and reeled out a thin fibercord from her utility belt.

Tenel Ka lowered herself like a spider on a web, walking precariously down the long smooth surface of the inner wall.

The other Jedi trainees watched her, some applauding, others just recognizing the girl's skill. She could have used her Jedi powers to speed the descent, but Tenel Ka relied on her body whenever possible and used the Force only as a last resort. She thought it showed weakness to depend too heavily on her special powers.

Tenel Ka made an easy landing on the stone floor, her glistening, scaly boots clicking as she touched down. She flexed her arms again to loosen her muscles, then grasped the thin fibercord. With a snap from the Force she popped her grappling hook up and away from the stone above and neatly caught it in her hand as it fell.

She reeled the fibercord into her belt and turned around with a serious expression on her face, then snapped the thong free from her hair and shook her head to let the reddish tresses fall loose around her shoulders.

Tenel Ka dressed like other women from Dathomir, in a brief athletic outfit made from scarlet and emerald skins of native reptiles. The flexible, lightly armored tunic and shorts left her arms and legs bare.

Despite her exposed skin, Tenel Ka never seemed bothered by scratches or insect bites, though she made numerous forays into the jungle.

Jacen waved at her, grinning. She acknowledged him with a nod, made her way over to where the twins were sitting, and slid onto the cool stone bench beside Jacen.

"Greetings," Tenel Ka said gruffly.

"Good morning," Jaina said. She smiled at the Amazonian young woman, who looked back at her with large, cool gray eyes, but did not return her smile-not out of rudeness, but because it wasn't in her nature. Tenel Ka rarely smiled.

Jacen nudged her with his elbow and dropped his voice. "I've got a new one for you, Tenel Ka. I think you'll like it. What do you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?"

She looked perplexed. "I don't understand."

"It's a joke!" Jacen said. "Come on, guess."

"Ah, a joke," Tenel Ka said, nodding. "You expect me to laugh?"

"You won't be able to stop yourself, once you hear it," Jacen said. "Come on, what do you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?"

"I don't know," Tenel Ka said. Jaina would have bet a hundred credits that the girl wouldn't even venture a guess.

"The appetizer!" Jacen chuckled.

Jaina groaned, but Tenel Ka's face remained serious. "I will need you to explain why that's funny . . . but I see the lecture is about to start.

Tell me some other time."

Jacen rolled his eyes.

Just as Luke Skywalker stepped out onto the speaking platform, a flustered Raynar emerged from the turbolift. Puffing and red-faced, he bustled down the long promenade between seats, trying to find a place where he could sit up front. Jaina noticed the boy now wore an entirely different outfit that was as bright as the one before, and of colors that clashed just as much. He sat down and gazed up at the Jedi Master, obviously wanting to impress the teacher.

Luke Skywalker stood on the raised platform and looked out at his mismatched students. His bright eyes seemed to pierce the crowd. Everyone fell silent, as if a warm blanket had fluttered down over them.

Luke still had the boyish looks that Jaina recalled from the history tapes, but now he carried calm power in his lean form, a thunderstorm bottled up in a diamond-hard gentleness. Through many trials Luke had somehow emerged bright and strong. He had survived to form the cornerstone of the new Jedi Knights that would protect the New Republic from the last vestiges of evil in the galaxy.

"May the Force be with you," Luke said in a soft voice that nevertheless carried the length of the grand audience chamber. The words in the often-repeated phrase sent a tingle across Jaina's skin. Beside her, Jacen flashed a smile. Tenel Ka sat up rigidly, as if in homage.

"As I have told you many times," Luke said, "I don't believe the training of a true Jedi comes from listening to lectures. I want to teach you how to learn action, how to do things, not just think about them. 'There is no try,' as Yoda, one of my own Jedi Masters, taught me."

From the front row, in a flash of bright color, Raynar raised his hand, waggling his fingers in the air to get Luke's attention. An audible groan rippled through the chamber; Jacen heaved a heavy sigh, and Jaina waited, wondering what question Raynar would come up with this time.

"Master Skywalker," Raynar said, "I don't understand what you mean by

'There is no try.' You must have tried and failed at some time. No one can always succeed in what they want to do."

Luke looked at the boy with an expression of patience and understanding.

Jaina never understood how her uncle could maintain his composure through Raynar's frequent interruptions. She supposed it must be the mark of a true Jedi Master.

"I didn't say that I never fail," Luke said. "No Jedi ever becomes perfect. Sometimes, though, what we succeed in doing is not exactly what we intended to do. Focus on what you accomplished, rather than on what you merely hoped to do. Or what you failed to do. Yes, recognize what you have lost-but look in a different way to see what you have gained."

Luke folded his hands together and walked with gliding footsteps from one side of the speaking platform to the other. His bright eyes never left Raynar's upraised face, but somehow Luke seemed to look at all of the students, speaking to every one of them.

"Let me give you an example," he said. "A few years ago I had a brilliant trainee named Brakiss. He was a talented student, a vora cious learner.

He had a great potential for the Force. He seemed kind and helpful, fascinated by everything I had to teach. He was also a great actor."

Luke took a deep breath, facing an unpleasant memory from his past. "You see, once it became known that I had founded an academy to teach Jedi Knights, it's not surprising that the remnants of the Empire would have their own students infiltrate my academy. I managed to catch their first few attempts. They were clumsy and untalented.

"But Brakiss was different. I knew he was an Imperial spy from the moment he stepped off the shuttle and looked around at the jungles on Yavin 4. I could sense it in him, a deep shadow barely hidden by his mask of friendliness and enthusiasm. But in Brakiss I also saw a real talent for the Force. Part of him had been corrupted long ago. He had a deep flaw surrounded by a beautiful exterior. "But rather than reject him outright, I decided to keep him here, to show him other ways. To heal him. Because if there could be good even in the heart of my father, Darth Vader, there must also be goodness in someone as fresh and new as Brakiss." Luke gazed up at the ceiling, then returned his glance to the audience.

"He stayed here for many months, and I took special interest in teaching him, guiding him, nudging him toward the light side of the Force in every way. He seemed to be turning, softening . . . but Brakiss was colder and than even I had suspected.

During one part of his training, I sent him on an illusionary quest that would seem real to him, a test that made him face himself. Brakiss had to look inward - to see his very core in a way that no one else could ever see.

"I had hoped the test would heal him, but instead Brakiss lost that battle. Perhaps he was simply not prepared to confront what he saw inside himself. It broke him somehow. He fled from this jungle moon, and I believe he went straight back to the Empire - taking with him everything that I had taught him of the Jedi Way."

Many students in the grand audience chamber gasped. Jaina sat up and looked at her twin brother in alarm. She had never heard this story before.

Raynar again had his hand up, but Luke looked at him with narrowed eyes so full of power that the arrogant student flinched and put his hand back down.

"I know what you're thinking," Luke continued. "That I tried to bring Brakiss back to the light side, and that I failed. But-just as I told you a few moments ago-I was forced to look at how I had succeeded.

"I did show Brakiss my compassion. I did let him learn the secrets of the light side, uncorrupted by what he had already been taught. And I did make him look at himself and realize how broken he was. Once I accomplished that much, the task was no longer mine. The final choice belonged to Brakiss himself. And it still does."

Now he raised his eyes and looked across the gathered Jedi. As Luke's gaze passed over them, Jaina felt an electric thrill, as if an invisible hand had just brushed her.

"To become Jedi," Luke said, "you must face many choices. Some may be simple but troublesome, others may be terrible ordeals. Here at my Jedi academy I can give you tools to use when facing those choices. But I cannot make the choices for you. You must succeed in your own way."

Before Luke could continue, sudden screeching alarms rang out, sounding an emergency.

Artoo-Detoo, the little droid Luke kept near his side, rushed into the grand audience chamber, emitting a loud series of unintelligible electronic whistles and beeps. Luke seemed to understand them, though, and he leaped down from the stage.

"Trouble out on the landing pad!" Luke said, sprinting for the turbolift.

He continued to speak to his students as he ran, his robes flapping behind him. "Think about what I've told you and go practice your skills."

The students milled about in confusion, not knowing what to do.

Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka looked at each other, the same thought in each of their minds. "Let's go see what's going on!"

3

Jacen saw that other Jedi students, who now rushed to the winding internal staircases or crowded into the turbolifts, had the same idea.

Tenel Ka, though, leaped to her feet and grabbed Jacen's arm, yanking him off the stone bench. "We can do it faster my way. Jaina, follow!"

Tenel Ka raced back to the stone wall below the skylights, weaving between two short lizardlike students who seemed baffled by the commotion and cheeped to each other in high-pitched voices. Already Tenel Ka had unreeled the lightweight fibercord from her belt and removed the sturdy grappling hook.

"We'll go up the wall, out the skylights, and down the outside," she said, twirling the grappling hook in her hand. The muscles in her arm rippled. At precisely the right moment she released the hook.

Jacen and Jaina helped it with the Force, guiding the hook so that it seated properly in the moss-covered sill. Its sharp durasteel points dug into a crack in the stone blocks and held there.

Tenel Ka grasped the fibercord in both hands, tugged backward, and began to climb up the rope. She dug the toes of her scaled boots against the wall, hauling herself up, somehow finding footing on the polished stone blocks.

Jacen grabbed the rope next, holding it steady as Tenel Ka ascended like a lizard up a sunbaked cliff face. As he climbed, his arms ached. He used the Force when he needed to, raising his body up, catching himself when his feet slipped. He would have preferred to show off his physical prowess, especially with Tenel Ka watching.

At last he pulled his wiry body to the top of the Great Temple, squirming out the win-dowsill to stand on the broad rough-hewn platform left by the ancient builders.

Jacen reached behind him to grab his sisters arm and pulled her up. The humid air of the jungle clung to the top of the pyramid, making it hot and sticky, unlike the cool mustiness of the temple interior.

Before they could catch their breath, Tenel Ka had retrieved the fibercord and was picking her way rapidly along the narrow stone walkway.

Pebbles crumbled under her feet, but she didn't seem the least bit concerned about falling.

"Around to the side," she said, not even panting. "We can get down faster that way."

Tenel Ka ran with light footsteps around the perimeter until she stopped, looking down at the cleared landing field where all ships arrived and departed. She stood stock still, like a warrior confronted with an awesome opponent.

Jacen and Jaina came up behind her and stared in amazement and horror at what they saw down in front of the temple.

A battered supply ship, the Lightning Rod, had landed in the jungle clearing. Their normal supply courier and message runner-long-haired old Peckhum-stood transfixed beside the open jaws of his cargo bay. His eyes were wide and white. He looked as if he had screamed himself hoarse, and could now make no sound.

He stared at a huge, unnatural-looking monstrosity that loomed out of the jungle as if ready to attack, snarling at him... waiting for Peckhum to make the next move.

"What is that thing?" Jaina asked, looking to her brother as if he would know.

Jacen squinted at the behemoth. As enormous as a shuttlecraft, its huge squarish body was covered with shaggy, matted hair tangled with primordial mos's. It stood on six cylindrical legs that were like the boles of ancient trees. Its massive triangular head sat like a Star Destroyer on its shoulders, but instead of eyes inset in its skull, it had a cluster of twelve thick, writhing tentacles, each one glistening with a round, unblinking eye. Curved tusks sprouted from its mouth, long and sharp and wicked enough to tear a hole through a sandcrawler.

"It's not like anything I've ever seen in my life," Jacen said.

Tenel Ka glared down at the monster with a grim expression. "Working together, we can fight it," she said. "Follow!" She dashed down the wide-cut stone steps outside the tall temple.

The monster let out a bellow of challenge so loud and so horrendous that it seemed to make the ancient stone blocks tremble. The three young Jedi Knights hurried to the ground level, careful not to slip and fall from the steep steps.

"Help me!" Peckhum cried, his voice tinny with fright.

At the jungle's edge, the hideous monster turned, as if distracted by something. Jacen felt his heart leap, thinking at first that perhaps the wild creature had seen the three of them approaching. But he saw that its attention was fixed instead on another figure walking alone, emerging from the lower levels of the temple pyramid, confidently gliding over the clipped grasses and weeds.

Luke Skywalker wore only his Jedi robe. Jacen expected to see him holding his light-saber, but both of Luke's hands were empty.

Luke stared at the creature, and the creature stared back with a dozen eyes waving at the ends of tentacles covering its face.

The Jedi Master continued to walk forward, directly toward the monster, as if he were in some sort of trance. He took one step, then another. The beast bristled, but held its ground, bellowing loudly enough to make the trees swish. Jungle birds and creatures fled from the horrifying sound.

While the beast was momentarily distracted, old Peckhum dove to the ground, scuttling on all fours through the open cargo doors of his battered shuttle. Jacen was glad to see the supply runner safe inside the shielded metal walls.

The monster roared upon losing its prey. But Luke spoke in an oddly calm and clear voice that was not at all muffled by the distance. "No, here!

Look at me," he said.

Tenel Ka reached the ground by leaping down the last four steps and landing in a crouch. Puffing and red-faced, Jacen and Jaina dashed down beside her, then all three teens stood rigid, watching Luke Skywalker face the jungle beast. They had no weapons of their own.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, old Peckhum charged back out of the open bay doors of the Lightning Rod, In his hands he held an old-fashioned blaster rifle. "Ill get him, Master Skywalker! Just stay there." He ducked down and aimed.

But Luke turned to him and motioned with his hand. "No," he said.

The blaster rifle went flying out of Peckhum's grip. The old supply runner stared in astonishment as Luke continued to stroll toward the monster, seemingly without a care in the world.

"This creature means no harm," Luke said, his voice quiet but firm. He never took his eyes off the beast. "It's just frightened and confused. It doesn't know where it is, or why we are here." He drew a deep breath.

"There's no need for killing."

Jacen's stomach knotted with unbearable tension as Luke approached the monster. The thing's long eyestalks waved at him, and its six tree-trunk legs took ponderous steps like an Imperial walker.

The beast lowered its triangular head, shaking it from side to side so that the pointed tusks seemed to scratch holes in the air. It let out a strange, soft blat of puzzlement.

Jacen hissed with fear, and his sister's entire body clenched. He had used his own talents with the Force to confront many strange animals out in the jungle, but never anything as powerful as this monster, never such a boiling mass of anger and confusion.

But Luke stepped right up to the shaggy, angry thing, within touching distance. The Jedi Master looked incredibly small, yet un afraid.

Beside the battered freighter, Peckhum fell to his knees. The discarded blaster rifle was at hand, but he didn't dare pick up the weapon again.

He looked from the monster to Luke, then to the three watching teens-then off into the jungle, as if terrified that another one of the creatures might appear.

Luke stood in front of the nightmarish beast and took a deep breath. He didn't move. The monster held its ground and snorted. Its eyestalks waved unblinking, pointing slitted pupils down at him.

Luke raised his hand, palm out.

The monster snuffled and waited, motionless, its wicked tusks less than a meter away from Luke Skywalker.

The jungle fell silent. The breeze died away. Jacen held his breath.

Jaina gripped his hand. Tenel Ka narrowed her cool gray eyes.

The silence seemed so overwhelming that when Luke at last broke the frozen moment, his whisper sounded as loud as a shout.

"Go," Luke told the creature. "There is nothing you need here."

The monster reared up on its hind set of piston legs, its eye tentacles thrashing in a frenzy. Then it let out another high-pitched trumpet before it spun around and crashed off into the thick undergrowth.

Branches cracked, trees bent to one side as it plowed a wide path back to the mysterious jungle depths from which it had come.

Like a snapped string, Luke's shoulders slumped with exhaustion. He seemed barely able to keep himself from trembling as Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka rushed toward him, calling his name. "Uncle Luke!"

Luke turned and looked at the three friends with a smile.

Old Peckhum stumbled up, clutching the antiquated blaster rifle. His eyes glittered with unshed tears. "I can't believe you did that, Master Skywalker!" he said. "I thought I was dead for sure, but you faced that monster with no weapons at all."

"I had enough weapons," Luke said with calm conviction. "I had the Force."

"I wish I could do that, Uncle Luke," Jacen said. "That was really something."

"You will be able to do anything you want, Jacen," Luke said. "You have the potential-as long as you have the discipline."

Luke gazed off into the jungle, where they could still hear trees crashing and shrubs snapping as the monster continued to blunder its way through the forest.

"There are many mysterious things in the jungles," Luke said, then he smiled at the twins and Tenel Ka. He nodded toward Peckhum's ship, the Lightning Rod, which still sat open, filled with crates and boxes of supplies and equipment.

"I think our friend Mr. Peckhum is having a rough day," Luke said. "He's got a lot more to unload, and he's probably eager to get back up into orbit, where it's safe." He flashed a smile at the old supply runner, who nodded vigorously.

"Why don't you three consider it a Jedi training exercise to help him.

Besides, we need to get ready because tomorrow-" He looked at Jacen and Jaina, eyes sparkling. "Your father and Chewbacca are bringing us another Jedi trainee."

"Dads coming here?" Jaina said with a yelp.

"Hey, why didn't you tell us before?" Jacen added. His heart leaped at the thought of seeing his father again after a full month.

"I wanted it to be a surprise. He's flying in on the Millennium Falcon, but he had to stop at Chewbacca's planet first. They've already left Kashyyyk, and they're on their way here."

Filled with excitement, the young Jedi Knights eagerly helped unload Peckhum's supply ship. It was hard work, demanding more concentration and control of their Jedi lifting abilities than they were used to, but they finished in less than an hour. Jaina and Jacen chattered to Tenel Ka about all the adventures Han Solo had experienced. Jaina groaned about how much work it would be to clean up their quarters in time, so they could impress their father.

Finally, the battered old freighter flew off into the misty skies toward the orangish gas-giant planet of Yavin.

Jacen smiled and looked wistfully at the trampled clearing. The next ship to arrive on the landing pad would be the Millennium Falcon!

4

"There," said Jaina, mentally relaxing her hold on a large mass of tangled wires and cables. It came "to rest in a more or less contained jumble atop one of the newly tidied stacks of electronic components in her room. "That should do it," she added with a satisfied nod.

"Does that mean we can go to morning meal now?" Jacen said. "You've been at this half the night."

"I want Dad to be impressed." Jaina shrugged.

Jacen laughed. "He never stacks his tools this neatly!"

"Guess I did get a little carried away," Jaina replied, matching his grin. "We've still got a few hours before they get here."

Jacen snorted and stood up from the floor, where he'd been sitting next to his sister while they worked. He brushed the dust off his jumpsuit and ran long fingers through his dark brown curls. "Well, how do I look?"

Jaina raised a critical eyebrow at him. "Like someone who's been up all night."

He hurried over to peer anxiously into the small mirror that Jaina had hung above her cistern. She realized that her brother was just as nervous and excited about seeing their father again as she was.

"It's actually not too bad," she assured him. "I think raking the twigs and leaves from your hair really helped. Here, put this on." She pulled a fresh jumpsuit from a chest by her bed. "You'll look more presentable."

When Jacen went into the next room to change, Jaina took his place at the mirror. She wasn't vain, but, as with her room, she preferred to keep her personal appearance neat and clean.

She ran a comb through her straight brown hair and stared at her reflection. Then, with a quick peek over her shoulder to be sure her brother wasn't looking, she pulled back a handful of strands and worked them into a braid. Jaina would never have gone to this much trouble for an ambassador or some silly dignitary-but her father was worth the effort. She hoped Jacen wouldn't notice or comment on it. Finished, she stepped through her doorway and poked her head into Jacen's room. "All the animals fed?" she asked.

"I took care of that hours ago," he said, emerging in his clean, fresh robe. He heaved a long-suffering sigh. "At least someone's had their morning meal."

Jaina gnawed her lip, anxiously scanning the sky for any glimmer that might herald the arrival of the Millennium Falcon. She and Jacen stood at the edge of the wide clearing in front of the Jedi academy, where the hideous monster had appeared the day before. The area's short grasses had been trampled down by frequent takeoffs and landings.

Jaina smelled the rich green dampness of the early morning in the jungle that surrounded the clearing. The foliage rustled and sighed in a light breeze that also carried the trills, twitters, and chirps that reminded her of the wide profusion of animal life that inhabited the jungle moon.

Beside her, Jacen shifted impatiently from one foot to the other, a frown of concentration etched across his forehead. Jaina sighed. Why did it seem like everything took forever when you were looking forward to it, and things that you didn't want to happen arrived too soon?

As if sensing her tension, Jacen suddenly turned to her with a mischievous look in his eye. "Hey, Jaina-you know why TIE fighters scream in space?"

She nodded. "Sure, their twin ion engines set up a shock front from the exhaust-"

"No!" Jacen waved his hand in dismissal. "Because they miss their mothership!"

As was expected of her, Jaina groaned, grateful for a chance to get her mind off waiting, even if only for a moment.

Then a comforting hum built and resonated around them, as if the sound of their mounting excitement had suddenly become audible. "Look," she said, pointing at a silver-white speck that had just appeared high above the treetops.

The glimmer disappeared for a few moments and then, with a rush of exhaled breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding, Jaina saw the Millennium Falcon swoop across the sky toward the clearing.

The familiar blunt-nosed oval of their father's ship hovered tantalizingly above their heads for a moment that seemed to stretch to eternity. Then, with a burst of its repulsor-lifts, it settled gently onto the ground in front of them. The Falcon's cooling hull buzzed and ticked as the engines died down to a low drone. The scent of ozone tickled Jaina's nostrils.

Jaina knew the shutdown procedures for the Corellian light freighter, but she wished that just for today there was some way to speed things up.

When she thought she could wait no longer, the landing ramp of the Falcon lowered with a whine-thump.

And then their father bounded down the ramp, gathering the twins into his arms, ruffling their hair, and trying to hug both of them at once, as he had done when they were small children.

Han Solo stepped back to take a good look at his children. "Well!" he said at last, with one of those lopsided grins for which he was so famous. "Except for your mother, I'd say this is the finest welcoming committee I've ever had."

"Dad," Jacen said, rolling his eyes, "We are not a committee."

As her father laughed, Jaina took a moment to study him, and was relieved to note that he had not changed in the month that they had been gone from home. He wore soft black trousers and boots that fitted him snugly, an open-necked white shirt, and a dark vest-a comfortable, serviceable set of clothes that he sometimes jokingly referred to as his "working uniform." The battered, familiar shape of the Millennium Falcon was unchanged as well.

"How do we look, Dad?" Jaina asked. "Any different?"

"Well, now that you mention it..." he said, turning his gaze to each of them in turn. "Jacen, you've grown again-bet you even caught up with your sister. And Jaina," he said with a wicked grin, "if I didn't think you'd throw a hydrospanner at me for saying so, I'd tell you that you're even prettier than you were a month ago."

Jaina blushed and gave an unladylike snort to demonstrate what she thought of such compliments, but secretly she was pleased.

A loud, echoing roar from inside the ship saved her the embarrassment of having to come up with a response. A large form thundered down the boarding ramp. Huge heavily furred arms reached out to grab Jaina and threw her high into the air.

"Chewie!" Jaina shrieked, laughing as the giant Wookiee caught her again on the way down. "I'm not a little kid anymore!" After Chewbacca had repeated this greeting ritual with her brother, Jaina finally said what she and Jacen were thinking. "It's good to see you, Dad, but what brings you to the Jedi academy?"

"Yeah," Jacen added. "Mom didn't send you to check if we had enough clean underwear, did she?"

"Nah, nothing like that," their father assured them with a laugh.

"Actually, Chewie and I needed to come out this direction to help my old friend Lando Calrissian open up a new operation."

Jaina had always had a great fondness for Lando, her father's dark and dashing friend, but she also knew him well enough to realize that her adopted "uncle" Lando was always involved hi some crackpot moneymaking scheme or another. She held up a hand to stop her father.

"Wait, let me guess. He's-he's starting a new casino on his space station and he needed you to bring him a shipload of sabacc cards."

"No, no, I've got it," Jacen said. "He's opening a new Nerf ranch and he wants you to help him build a corral."

At this Chewbacca threw back his head and bleated with Wookiee laughter.

"Not even close." Han Solo shook his head. "Corusca gem mining deep in the atmosphere of the gas giant." He pointed up to the great orange ball of the planet Yavin in the sky overhead. "He asked us to come and help him set up the operation."

"Oh, blaster bolts!" said Jacen, snapping his fingers. "That was going to be my next guess."

Another faint Wookiee-sounding bellow came from inside the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca turned and strode back up the ramp.

"What was that?" Jaina asked.

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Han said. "When Luke found out we had to come here anyway, he asked us to stop by Chewie's homeworld of Kashyyyk and pick up a new Jedi candidate. He's going to be your fellow student."

As Han spoke, Chewbacca thumped back down the ramp, closely followed by a smaller Wookiee, who was still taller than Jacen or Jaina. The younger Wookiee had thick swirls of ginger-colored fur, with a remarkable swirling black streak as wide as Jaina's hand that ran from just above his left eye up over his head and down to the middle of his back. He wore only a belt woven of some glossy fiber that Jaina could not identify.

"Kids, I'd like you to meet Chewie's nephew Lowbacca. Lowbacca, my kids Jacen and Jaina."

Lowbacca nodded his head and growled a Wookiee greeting. He was thin and lanky, even for a Wookiee, with gangly fur-covered arms and legs. The young Wookiee fidgeted. Chewbacca barked a question to Han and waved one massive arm in the direction of the temple.

"Sure," Han said. "Go ahead-take him to Luke for now. The kids can get to know each other later."

As the two Wookiees headed off to find Luke, Han said, "Wait here, I have something for you," and ducked back into the Falcon. He returned in a few moments, his arms laden with a strange assortment of packages and greenery.

"First," he said, tossing each of them a small message disk, "your mother recorded these personal holo letters for you. There's another one from your little brother Anakin. He can't wait to come here himself."

Jaina looked at the glittering message disks, anxious to play them. But she slipped them into one of the pockets of her jumpsuit.

"And now..." Han said, holding up a large bouquet of green fronds sprinkled with purple and white star-shaped blossoms. Grinning, he waggled the flowers.

"Oh, Dad, you remembered!"

Jacen ran forward ecstatically. "My stump lizard's favorite food." He took the leafy bundle gratefully and said, "I'll feed 'em to her right away. See you later, Dad." Then he ran off in the direction of the Great Temple.

Jaina stood alone with her father, looking expectantly at the last bulky package he held in his arms. He set it on the weedy ground of the landing clearing and stepped back so that Jaina could pull aside the rags that covered it.

"Great wrapping job, Dad," she said, smiling.

"Hey, it works." Han spread his hands.

Jaina gasped as she removed the coverings, then looked up at her father, who grinned and shrugged nonchalantly. "A hyperdrive unit!" she said.

"It's not in working condition, you understand," he said. "And it's pretty old. I got it off an old Imperial Delta-class shuttle they were dismantling on Coruscant."

Jaina remembered fondly the times she had helped her father tinker with the Falcon's subsystems to keep it running in peak condition-or as close as they could get. "Oh, Dad, you couldn't have picked a better present!"

She jumped up and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his dark vest. She could tell that her father was pleased-and maybe even a little embarrassed-by her enthusiasm.

Her father looked down at her and raised one eyebrow. "You know, there's a couple more components on the ship. If you wanted to help me bring 'em out here, your dad could show you how they all go together."

She ran after him into the ship.

5

It was late that morning when Jacen and Jaina finally caught up with their father, Chewbacca, and his nephew Lowbacca. The twins, who had spent hours at their respective assigned duties and Jedi training exercises, arrived back at the students' quarters just as they saw the threesome emerge from a formerly empty room.

"Hi!" Jacen called, hurrying up to Lowbacca with his sister in tow. "Are you tired from your trip? If not, I could show you my room. I have some really unusual pets. I collected most of them from the jungles here and Jaina made some cages for them-you should see those cages-and Jaina could show you her room too. She's got all sorts of broken-down equipment that she uses to build things out of." In his enthusiasm, Jacen never even paused to take a breath.

The much taller Lowbacca looked down at the human boy as Jacen rattled on. "Do you like animals? Do you like to build things? Did you bring any pets or equipment with you from Kashyyyk? Do you like-"

His father chuckled into the stream of questions. "Therell be time enough for that later, kid. We spent most of the morning with Luke, and then we got Lowbacca settled in his room. You two want to take him on a tour of the academy, get him familiar with the place? By now, you probably know your way around better than Chewie or I do."

"We'd love to," Jaina answered before their father had finished his sentence.

"We're the perfect tour guides," Jacen added with a confident shrug.

"Jaina and I came to the Jedi academy for the first time when we were only two years old." He smiled a cocky, lopsided grin-the one their mother always said made him look just like his father.

Lowbacca gave an interrogative growl. "He asked how many times you've given this tour," Han translated.

"Well," Jacen sputtered, his face reddening slightly, "if you mean in an official capacity, as opposed to, er, um..." His voice trailed off.

"What he means is," Jaina put in firmly, "this is our first time."

Lowbacca exchanged a glance with his uncle. Chewbacca raised a furred brown arm, indicated the long corridor with a flourish of his hand, and gave a short bark.

"Right," Han said. "Let's go."

The twins led the group down a set of mossy, cracked stairs to the main level and out onto the grassy clearing in front of the Great Temple.

Jacen was eager to prove himself a good tour guide and pointed to each squarish level of the gigantic pyramid as he spoke.

"At the very top is an observation deck that gives one of the best views of the big planet Yavin overhead-unless of course you climb one of those huge old Massassi trees in the jungle," he said with a laugh. "The top level of the pyramid has only one enormous room-the grand audience chamber-that can hold thousands of people."

"That's where the Jedi trainees gather when Uncle Luke-I mean Master Skywalker-gives his lessons," Jaina said.

Jacen went on to explain that the lower levels had been remodeled in recent years. The larger level directly below the grand audience chamber housed those who lived at the academy-trainees, academy staff, and Master Skywalker himself-and also contained rooms for storage or meditation, as well as chambers for guests and visiting dignitaries.

The pyramid's huge ground level held the Communications Center, the main computers, meeting areas and offices, and common rooms in which meals were prepped and eaten. It also held the Strategy Center-the chamber that had been known as the War Room in the days when the temple had housed the Alliance's secret base. Under ground, and completely invisible from where they stood, was a gigantic hangar bay that stored shuttles, speeders, fighters, and other aircraft.

On two sides of the Great Temple and along the landing area flowed broad rivers, and beyond them lay the lush and mostly unexplored jungles of the fourth moon of Yavin. "The temples were built by the Massassi, a mysterious ancient race. There are actually lots of structures scattered throughout the jungles," Jacen said. "Some of them are just ruins, really-like the Palace of the Woolamander across the river there."

He described the power-generating station next to the main temple, a series of plate-shaped wheels, twice as tall as Jacen himself, standing on edge and connected through the center by a long axle.

"So you see," Jaina said, picking up the narration where her brother had left off, "with the power station, the river, and the jungles, the Jedi academy is fairly self-sufficient. Come on, let's go inside."

The tour concluded at the twins' quarters, where Jacen and Jaina delighted in showing their father and the two Wookiees their respective treasure troves of pets and salvaged bits of machinery. Han Solo beamed with fatherly pride. Lowbacca displayed a gratify ing if subdued interest in the creatures in Jacen's menagerie.

When the group moved into his sister's room, Jacen quickly slid the crystal snake he had been showing off back into its cage and hurried after them. By the time he bounded through the door, Lowbacca was already engrossed in an assortment of gadgets and wiring that he had spread out across Jaina's floor. He was far more interested in the electronics than in the wild jungle creatures.

"Do you like working on machines, Chewie-uh, I mean, Lowbacca?" Jaina asked, bending next to the gangly Wookiee.

The hairy, creature expressed his fascination with such a long series of grunts, growls, and rumbles that Jacen was at a loss to understand how a simple yes-or-no question could produce such an animated answer.

As usual, their father translated. "First of all, Lowbacca would take it as a great sign of friendship if you would call him Lowie."

Jacen gave a pleased nod. '"Lowie,' huh? I like that."

"And for the rest..." Han continued, "well, I'm not sure I followed it all. The thing he really gets excited about is computers."

Jaina patted the young Wookiee on the shoulder. "We can do a lot of things together, then, Lowie." Chewbacca chuffed in agree ment.

But Jaina's forehead furrowed with sudden concern. "Uh, Dad?" she said.

"It's obvious that Lowie has studied our language and understands us as well as Chewie does. But we can't understand him. After all, it took you years to learn the Wookiee language. How is he going to get by here at the Jedi academy where nobody can understand him?"

Jacen nodded agreement, looking at the young Wookiee. "Who'll translate for us?"

They were interrupted at this point by a triumphant bark from Chewbacca.

"We have just the answer for you," Han said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "A little something that See-Threepio and Chewie cooked up."

Chewbacca turned and held out a shiny metallic device for everyone to see. The sidewise-ovoid apparatus was silvery, slightly longer than Lowie's hand and about four fingers thick, flat on the back and rounded on the front. It looked like a face, with two yellow optical sensors unevenly spaced near the top, a more or less triangular protrusion toward the center, and a perforated oblong on the lower portion that Jacen took to be a speaker.

Chewbacca fiddled with something at the back of the device, and the yellow eyes flickered to life. A thin metallic voice, careful and correct, issued from the tiny speaker. "Greetings. I am a Miniaturized Translator Droid-Em Teedee-specializing in human-Wookiee relations. I am fluent in over six forms of communication. My primary programmed function is to translate Wookiee speech into other humanoid languages." It paused expectantly and then added, "Might I be of assistance?"

Jacen laughed. "It can't be!"

Jaina gasped. "Sounds just like Threepio!"

"Almost," their father replied, his mouth twisted in wry amusement. He scratched under his collar with one lazy finger. "A little too much like Threepio, for my money. But since he did most of the programming on Em Teedee, I couldn't talk him out of it." He shrugged apologetically.

"Why don't you kids try it out during the midday meal? Chewbacca and I still have some business to discuss with Luke, then well take off in the Falcon later this afternoon. We've got to see Lando at his mining station."

The common room the Jedi trainees used as a mess hall was filled with wooden tables of various heights. The seats-chairs, benches, nests, ledges, cushions, and stools-came in a broad variety of shapes and sizes to accommodate the differing customs and anatomies of human and alien students.

The plantlike members of the Jedi academy had gone outside to the bright sun-washed steps of the Great Temple, where they could soak up light from Yavin's white sun and photosynthesize for nutrients, adding small packets of minerals into their digestive orifices. Inside the mess hall, though, dozens of unusual species sat together eating exotic foods particular to their own kind.

Jacen followed a step behind, still chattering about the old Massassi temples, as Jaina found a table at one end of the large hall that had a chair appropriate for Lowbacca. So far Jacen had been unable to elicit more than a few nods and gestures from the Wookiee, who seemed deep in thought, intent on absorbing the smells, sights, and sounds around him.

Determined to start a real conversation with the new trainee, Jacen cast about in his mind for a good question. So, Lowie, how much stuff do you need to move in? Naw, that was a stupid question.

How about, How old are you? No, that would get him only a short answer.

And anyway, their father had told them that earlier this morning. Lowie was nineteen, barely an adolescent by Wookiee standards. Maybe something like, How did you know you wanted to become a Jedi? Yes, that was good.

But before he could pose the question, the solid, muscular form of Tenel Ka swung into the seat next to him, across from Lowbacca.

"New student," she said, acknowledging Lowbacca in the brief, direct way that was so characteristic of her.

"Lowie," Jacen said, "this is our friend Tenel Ka, from the planet of Dathomir."

"And this," Jaina responded, making the introductions for her side of the table, "is Lowbacca, nephew of Chewbacca, from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk."

Tenel Ka rose formally and inclined her head, tossing her red-gold hair.

"Lowbacca of Kashyyyk, I greet you," she said, and re sumed her seat.

Lowbacca nodded in return and uttered three short growls.

Jacen waited for a moment, looking at the little translator droid clipped to Lowie's belt, but nothing happened.

"Well?" Jaina said expectantly. "You going to translate for its, Em Teedee?"

"Goodness me, Mistress Jaina, I am sorry," the tiny droid replied in a flustered, mechanical voice. "Oh, how dreadful! My initial opportunity to perform my primary function for Master Lowbacca, and I've failed him. I assure you, masters and mistresses all, that from now on I will endeavor to make each translation as speedily and as eloquently as possible-"

Lowbacca interrupted the translator droid's self-reproach with a sharp growl.

"Translate?" the little droid replied. "Translate what? Oh! Oh, I see.

Yes. Immediately." Em Teedee made a noise that sounded for all the world as if it was clearing its throat, and then began. "Master Lowbacca says,

'May no sun rise upon a day, nor any moon rise upon a night, in which, he is not as honored to see you, and to be in your presence, as he is at this very moment.'"

Jaina rolled her eyes. Jacen shook his head in disbelief. But Tenel Ka's face remained expressionless.

From the corner of his eye, Jacen caught sight of the troublesome young student Raynar in his colorful robes, snickering at them from a nearby table. Automated servers carried generous bowls of food from the kitchen and placed them in front of each trainee.

But Jacen's attention was brought back to his own table when Lowie growled down into the optical sensors of the translator droid.

"Well, so what if I did embellish a bit?" the droid asked defensively, as a plate of steaming, blood-red meat was placed in front of the Wookiee.

"I was only attempting to make you sound more civilized."

Lowbacca's threatening growl left no doubt as to whether he was grateful to the droid.

'Very well," Em Teedee huffed. "Perhaps a better translation of Master Lowbacca's words would have been, 'The sun has never shined so brightly for this humble Wookiee as on this day we meet.'"

Jacen accepted a hot cup of soup that his sister passed across the table to him. He shot a questioning look at Lowie, who growled again at Em Teedee.

"Well, have it your way then," the droid said haughtily, but in a more subdued voice, "But I assure you that my translations were much more refined. Ahem, What Master Lowbacca actually said was, 1 am pleased to meet you.'"

When the Wookiee finally grunted in satisfaction, Tenel Ka replied gravely, as if she had not heard any of the other translations, "It is a pleasure shared, Lowbacca."

As an automated tray trundled past toward Raynar's nearby table, Tenel Ka reached out and snagged the last jug of fresh juice. She poured the rich ruby liquid into each of their cups and then set the jug with a gentle thump on the table before them. She blinked her cool gray eyes and solemnly held out her cup.

"Jacen and Jaina are already my friends. I offer you friendship, Lowbacca of Kashyyyk."

The Wookiee hesitated, unsure of what to do. Jaina pressed a cup into his hand. Jacen raised his and said, "Friendship."

"Friendship," Jaina echoed.

Nodding, Lowie lifted his glass high in the air, threw his head back, and let out a roar that rang through the hall.

The small voice of Em Teedee broke the silence that followed. "Master Lowbacca most emphatically accepts your offer of friendship and extends his own." To everyone's surprise, the Wookiee did not correct the translator.

"Accepted," Tenel Ka said, taking a drink. When everyone had followed suit, she said, "And now we are friends."

"That means you can call him Lowie now," Jaina said.

Tenel Ka considered this for a moment. "I choose to honor him by using his complete name."

At another table, three short reptilian Cha'a sat around a trayful of warm, rocking eggs, staring fixedly at them like the predators they were.

When the eggs cracked and opened, the Cha'a lunged for the bright pink furry hatchlings as they emerged fresh from the shells.

Two whistling avian creatures shared a plateful of thin, writhing threads covered with fluffy blue hair-tantalizing ropy caterpillars which they slurped one at a time through their narrow, horny beaks.

As Jacen sat at the table spooning his soup, trying to think of something amusing to say to Tenel Ka, or at least to continue the conversation with Lowie, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye-something slithering toward the table beside them. A glassy glitter. A serpentine flash.

Jacen's heart leaped into his throat. He suddenly wondered if he had fastened the cage of the crystal snake when his father and the Wookiees had finished their tour of his chambers.

"Hey," Raynar said, leaning over the table beside them, his flashy robes so brilliant that they made Jacen's eyes ache. "Would you mind giving our juice jug back?" Raynar used his own Jedi powers to snatch the jug from their table and carry it through the air back toward himself. "Next time please ask before you just take it." He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest with a self-satisfied expression.

Just then, light fell on the crystal snake, and Jacen saw it with perfect clarity. It reared up on Raynar's lap and hissed at him, its flat triangular head staring the boy right in the face.

Raynar saw it and shrieked, losing his Force concentration. The jug wobbled, then fell, spilling deep red juice all over his bright robes.

Jacen leaped to his feet and jumped for the snake. He had to catch it before it wreaked more havoc. He tackled Raynar, trying to grab the serpent from the other boy's lap. Raynar, thinking he was being attacked from all sides, screamed in terror at the top of his lungs.

As he and Jacen struggled, their entire table toppled over, spilling dark brown pudding, knocking other beverage containers right and left, spraying food on Raynar's companions at the table.

Tenel Ka, not understanding the problem but always ready to defend her friends, jumped into the fray. She picked up Jacen's hot soup and hurled it toward Raynar's companions, who, seeing the attack coming from a new front, decided to retaliate.

A platter of honeyed noodles sailed across the dining hall toward Jaina, but she ducked. The noodles instead splattered and clung to the bristly white fur of a Talz-a bearlike creature that stood up and blatted a musical note of dismay. When Jaina saw the noodles sticking to the alien's white fur, she couldn't stop herself from laughing.

The crystal snake slithered out of Jacen's grasp as Jacen crawled across Raynar's squirming lap. The young Jedi screamed as if he were being murdered, but Jacen scuttled under the dining tables after the serpent.

Bumping one of the tables over while grabbing for the snake, he felt smooth, dry scales against his fingertips-but the snake slid through them, and he could not hold on.

Another table was knocked over as Lowie came to help. With a flurry of feathers, the avian creatures squawked and fought over their plateful of squirming, fuzzy blue thread-worms.

More food flew through the air, levitated by Jedi powers, and tossed from one table to another. The Jedi students were laughing, seeing it now as a release from the tension of the grueling studies and deep concentration required of them during their training.

Steamed leaves flew in the faces of the reptilian Cha'a, interrupting their predatory concentration. All three of them stood up and whirled to meet the attack, back-to-back, standing in a three-point formation, hissing and glaring. The milky tan eggs on their eating platter continued to hatch, and the pink fuzzy hatchlings chose that moment to escape.

Lowie let out a stone-rumbling Wookiee roar, and Em Teedee squeaked with a highpitched alarm. "I can't see a thing, Master Lowbacca! Comestibles are obscuring my optical sensors. Do please clean them off!"

Artoo-Detoo trundled into the dining chamber and let out an electronic wail, but his droid cries were drowned out by the laughter and the tumult of flying food. Before Artoo could wheel around and sound the alarm, a large tray of creamy dessert pastries splattered across his domed top.

The astro-mech droid beat a hasty, whirring retreat.

As the crystal snake slithered toward the cracked stone walls to escape, Jacen desperately plowed forward. He reached out with one hand and grabbed the pointed tail. The serpent rippled around invisibly in a fluid motion, flashing its fangs toward Jacen, ready to bite down on the hand holding it. But Jacen held out his other hand, pointing with his finger and the Force, touching the snake's tiny brain.

"Hey! Don't you dare." he said aloud. Then, as the crystal snake hesitated, Jacen grabbed it around the neck and lifted it into the air.

The lower part of its long body whipped and thrashed. Jacen coiled the snake around his arm and sent soothing thoughts into its mind. He stood up, grinning and relieved.

"I got it!" he cried in triumph-just as three overripe fruits splashed against his face and chest, bursting their thin skins and spilling rich purple pulp all over him. Jacen sputtered and then allowed himself to giggle, still maintaining his hold on the crystal snake.

"Stop!" A booming voice enhanced by the Force echoed through the dining hall.

Suddenly everything froze as if time itself had paused. All the flying food hung suspended in the air; each drip of liquid dangled motionless above the tables. All sound ceased, save for that of the trainees' gasps.

Master Luke Skywalker stood in the entrance to the dining hall wearing a stern expression as he surveyed the suspended food fight. Jacen looked at his uncle's expression and thought he saw anger, but also a concealed amusement.

Luke said, "Was this the best and most challenging way you could find to put your powers to use?" He gestured to all the mo tionless food and seemed very sad for a moment. Then he turned to leave-but not before Jacen noticed a smile spreading across his face.

As he departed, Luke called, "Instead, perhaps you can use your Jedi powers... to clean up this mess." He gestured briefly with his right hand, and the suspended food platters, bowls of soup, desserts, fruits, and messy confections were released, tumbling down like an avalanche.

Practically everyone was splattered all over again as sticky gobbets sprayed into the air.

Jacen looked at the aftermath of the food war. Still holding the crystal snake, he wiped a smear of frosting from his nose.

The other Jedi students, though subdued, began to chuckle with relief, then set to work cleaning up.

6

The warm afternoon sun sparkled in the heavy, moist air as Lowbacca accompanied his uncle and Han Solo back to the Millennium Falcon. Beside him the Solo twins chattered gaily, apparently oblivious to the thick jungle heat. He could sense an underlying tension, though: Jacen and Jaina would miss their father every bit as much as he would miss his uncle Chewbacca, his mother, and the rest of his family back on Kashyyyk.

Lowbacca's golden eyes flicked uneasily about the clearing in front of the Great Temple. He was still uncomfortable with wide-open spaces so close to the ground. On the Wookiee homeworld all cities were built high in the tops of the massive intertwining trees, supported by sturdy branches. Even the most courageous of Wookiees seldom ventured to the inhospitable lower levels of the forest-much less all the way to the ground, where dangers abounded.

To Lowbacca, height meant civilization, comfort, safety, home. And although the enormous Massassi trees towered up to twenty times as high as any other plant on Yavin 4, compared with the trees of Kashyyyk they were midgets. Lowbacca wondered if he would ever find a place high enough on this small moon to make him feel at ease.

Lowie was so lost in thought that he was startled to see that they had arrived at the Falcon.

"Never have the chance to do a preflight when we're under fire," Han Solo said, "but it's a good idea when we do have the time." Standing at the foot of the entry ramp, he smiled disarmingly at them. "If you kids aren't too busy, Chewie and I could use some help doing the preflight checks."

"Great," Jaina said before anyone else could respond. "I'll take the hyperdrive." She rushed up the ramp, pausing for only a millisecond to brush a kiss on her father's cheek. "Thanks, Dad. You're the best."

Han Solo looked immensely pleased for a long moment before bringing himself back to business with a shake of his head. "So, kid, you got any preferences?" He looked at Lowie, who thought briefly, then rumbled his reply.

Although Han Solo had doubtless understood him very well, the pesky translator droid piped up. "Master Lowbacca wishes to inspect your ship's computer systems in order that he might tell it where to go."

Han Solo gave Chewbacca a sidelong glance. "Thought you said you fixed that thing," he said, indicating Em Teedee. "It needs an attitude adjustment."

Chewbacca shrugged eloquently, gave a menacing growl, and administered emergency repair procedure number one: he held the silvery oval with one huge hand while he shook the little droid until the circuits rattled.

"Oh, dear me! Perhaps I could have been a bit more precise," the droid squeaked hastily. "Er... Master Lowbacca expresses his desire to perform the preflight checks on your navigational computer."

"Good idea, kid," Han Solo agreed, briskly rubbing his palms together.

"Jacen, you take the exterior hull; see if anything's nested in the exterior vents in the last couple of hours. I'll start on the life-support systems. Chewie, you check the cargo bay."

This last was said with a lift of the chin and a twinkle in Han Solo's eye that Lowbacca knew must have meant something to the older Wookiee-but Lowie hadn't a clue. He wondered dispiritedly if he would ever understand humans as well as his uncle did.

The navicomputer was an enjoyable challenge. Lowie ran through all the preflight requirements twice-not because he thought he might have missed something the first time, but because the two places he felt most at home were in the treetops and in front of a computer.

By the time Lowie completed his second run-through, Han Solo had already finished with the life-support systems and was now checking out the ship's emergency power generator. When he saw Lowbacca, Han wiped his hands on a greasy rag, tossed it aside, and held up one finger as if an idea had just come to him. "Why don't you give your uncle a hand in the cargo hold while I finish up here." His roguish grin was even more lopsided than usual.

Lowbacca wondered what the smile meant and why his uncle should still need his help with the cargo. Sometimes humans were very difficult to understand. With a shrug, he headed toward the cargo bay.

"Excuse me, Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee piped up, "but will you be needing my translating services at this time?"

Lowbacca growled a negative.

"Very well, sir," Em Teedee said. "In that case, would you mind if I put myself into a brief shutdown cycle? If you should require my assistance for any reason, please do not hesitate to interrupt my rest cycle."

Lowie assured Em Teedee that the miniature droid would be the first to know if he needed anything from him.

He found his uncle clambering across a mountain of crates and bundles, checking the securing straps. Apparently Lando Calris-sian needed a good many supplies for his new mining operation.

Even in the crowded cargo hold, he breathed deeply, enjoying the mix of familiar smells: speeder fuel, machined metal, lubri cants, space rations, and Wookiee sweat-enough to make him homesick for the treetop cities of Kashyyyk. He would have little access to speeders or computers while he studied at the Jedi academy-with the exception, of course, of Em Teedee. But perhaps he could console himself occasionally by climbing the jungle trees and thinking of home.

Maybe he would do that after the Falcon took off, but for now there was work to do.

Lowie asked his uncle what still needed to be done, and began to check the webbing on a pile of cargo that Chewbacca indicated. The straps and webbing were loose, and so was the cloth that covered the pile-so loose, in fact, that as Lowbacca began to work, the covering slid away entirely.

His jaw dropped, and he stepped back to admire what he had accidentally uncovered.

The air speeder, dismantled into large components, was still recognizable. It was an older model, a T-23 skyhopper, with con trols similar to the X-wing fighter, but with trihedral wings, and a passenger seat and cramped cargo compartment at the rear of the cockpit. The blue-metallic hull had been battered and stained with age, but the engine mounted between the wings looked in ser viceable condition.

He glanced up to find his uncle staring at him expectantly. Then, to his great surprise, Chewbacca asked Lowie what he thought of the craft.

The skyhopper was compact and well constructed. It wouldn't take much to put all the pieces together again. He complimented the vintage speeder's lines and ventured a guess as to its range and maneuverability. Of course, the onboard computer probably needed a system overhaul and the exterior could use a bit of body work, but those were only minor drawbacks. The dings and scars on the hull only served to add character.

With a satisfied growl, Chewbacca spread his arms wide and shocked Lowie by telling him the T-23 was a going-away gift. The speeder belonged to Lowbacca, if he could assemble it.

Lowbacca stood next to his T-23 in the clearing with Jacen and Jaina and waved good-bye. After a flurry of hugs, exchanged thanks, and last-minute messages, they watched as Han and Chewbacca climbed back aboard the ship.

Now as the Millennium Falcon cleared the treetops and angled into the deep blue sky, the three young Jedi trainees continued waving, each lost in thought for a long moment as they gazed after the departing ship.

At last Jaina heaved a sigh. "Well, Lowie," she said, rubbing her hands together with a look of gleeful anticipation as she looked at the battered T-23. "Need any help getting this bucket of bolts up and going?"

Realizing that even though Jaina was younger, she probably had more experience tuning speeder engines than he did, he nodded gratefully.

They spent the next few hours preparing the T-23 for its first flight on Yavin 4. Jacen occupied himself by telling jokes that Lowie didn't understand, or fetching tools for the two enthusiastic mechanics. Jaina smiled as she worked, glad of the rare chance to share what she knew about speeders and engines and T-23s.

When at last they finished and Lowbacca leaned into the cockpit to switch on the engine, the T-23 crackled, sputtered, and roared to life. It lifted off the ground on its lower repulsorlifts, and a bright glow spluttered from the ion afterburners. The three friends let out two cheers and a bellow of triumph.

"Need anyone to take her for a test flight?" Jaina asked hopefully.

Lowie stumbled over a tentative answer. "What Master Lowbacca is trying to say," said Em Teedee, who had long since finished his rest cycle, "is that, as kind as your offer is, he would vastly prefer to pilot the first flight himself."

Lowbacca grunted once.

"And?" the little droid replied. "What do you mean, 'And?' Oh, I see-the other thing you said. But, sir, you didn't mean . . ."

Lowbacca growled emphatically.

"Well, if you insist," Em Teedee said. "Ahem. Master Lowbacca also says that he would be honored to have you as his passenger, Mistress Jaina.

However," he rushed on, "let me assure you that last statement was made with the utmost reluctance."

Lowbacca groaned and hit his forehead with the heel of one hairy hand in a Wookiee expression of complete embarrassment.

"Well, it's certainly the truth," Em Teedee said defensively. "I'm certain I didn't get the intonation wrong."

Jaina, who had at first looked disappointed at Lowbacca's reluctance, now seemed amused at his chagrin. "I understand, Lowie," she said. "I'd want to take her out on my own the first time, too. How about giving us a ride tomorrow?"

Relieved that the twins were not upset, Lowbacca loudly agreed, jumped into the cockpit, and strapped himself in. The whine of the engines drowned out Em Teedee's attempt at translating. Lowie raised a hand in salute, waited until Jacen and Jaina were clear, brought the engines to full power, and took off, heading out toward the vast jungle.

The T-23 maneuvered well, and Lowbacca reveled in the feeling of height and freedom as he streaked away. But still he found him self yearning for one more thing, something that he had been thinking of all day.

The trees. Tall, towering, safe trees.

Scarcely half an hour later, far away from the Jedi academy and the Great Temple, he landed the T-23 on the sturdy treetops, set tling the craft in the uppermost branches of the Massassi trees. The tree canopy was not as high as he was used to. The air was thinner, and the jungle smells, though not unpleasant, were different from those of Kashyyyk. Even so, Lowbacca felt more at peace now than he had at any other moment since landing on Yavin 4.

Jacen had said that the huge orange gas giant overhead was best viewed from a Mas-sassi tree-and the human boy was definitely right. Lowie looked around in all directions-at the sky and the trees, at the crumbling ruins of smaller temples visible through breaks in the canopy.

He stared at the languid rivers, at the strange vegetation and animals around him. He sighed with relief. He could find a place of contentment and solitude on this moon, a place where he could think of family and home while he studied to be a Jedi.

As the late-afternoon sunlight slanted through the thick branches, a distant glint caught Lowbacca's eye. He wondered what it could be. It was not the color of any vegetation or temple ruins. The light reflected from a shiny and evenly shaped object stuck partway up a tree. Lowie leaned forward, as if that could help him see more clearly. He wished he had brought a pair of macrobinoculars.

Curiosity and wonder struck a spark of excitement in him. He wanted to get closer, but caution intervened. It was getting dark. And after all, if the object was important, wouldn't someone have seen it long ago?

Perhaps not. He doubted it could be seen from the jungle floor, and it was unlikely that many students came out and climbed to the top of the canopy, this far away from the Great Temple. He was almost certain that no one knew about this discovery.

Heart pounding, Lowie made a mental note of the shiny object's location.

He would come back the very first chance he got-he had to find out what it was.

7

"I wonder why Lowie never made it to evening meal," Jacen said. Jaina and Tenel Ka sat next to him in the grand audience chamber, where Luke Skywalker had summoned them all for a special announcement. Dusk light shone like burning metal through the narrow windows overhead, but the clean white glowpanels dispelled shadows in the large, echoing room.

"Maybe he was having too much fun flying his T-23," Jaina whispered. "I probably wouldn't have made it back either."

"Perhaps," Tenel Ka said in a low voice, as if giving the matter serious consideration, "he was not hungry."

Jacen flashed her a look of disbelief. "Hey, a Wookiee not hungry? Hah!

And you say I make dumb jokes."

Tenel Ka shrugged. "It is a thought."

"Okay, well," Jacen said, "I'm not kidding now-what if something went wrong with the skyhopper? What if Lowie crashed in the jungle?"

"Impossible," Jaina replied. Though she whispered, her tone was clearly firm. "I checked all those systems myself."

Tenel Ka's eyebrows raised a fraction. "Ah. Ah-hah. So because you checked them, the systems could not malfunction?" She nodded, and Jacen could have sworn that he saw the shadow of a smile lurking at the corners of her lips.

"Never mind-there's Lowie," Jacen said with relief, waving his arms to attract their Wookiee friend's attention.

"See?" Jaina said smugly. "Told you nothing could happen."

Jacen pretended not to notice. "You're just in time," he said as the Wookiee joined them. "Master Skywalker should be here anytime now."

No one really knew why this special twilight meeting had been called, but it was fairly unusual. Everyone who lived, worked, or trained at the Jedi academy had arrived, filling the chamber with a hushed excitement.

Jacen whispered, "Where were you, Lowie?"

Lowbacca responded in a low rumble, quieter than any Jacen had ever heard a Wookiee use. Without warning, Em Teedee announced in a clear metallic voice, "Master Lowbacca wishes it known that he had a most successful expedition and-" The translator droid cut off in midsentence as Lowbacca clamped a ginger-furred hand over the droid's mouth speaker.

"Shhh!" Jaina hissed.

"Can't you turn it down?" Jacen whispered.

Curious eyes turned to stare at them from every section of the grand audience chamber. Lowbacca hunched down in his seat with a chagrined look that needed no interpreter. He craned his neck forward to stare at the droid clipped to his webbed belt. He issued a series of soft, sharp mutters.

"Oh! Oh, dear me," Em Teedee replied in an enthusiastic though much quieter voice. "I do beg your pardon. I did not fully com prehend that you didn't intend to share your discovery with everyone present."

"Discovery?" Jacen said. "What did you-"

But Master Skywalker chose that moment to make his entrance. A hush fell over the crowd, putting an end to all hope of Jacen satisfying his curiosity before the meeting began. Luke mounted the steps to the wide raised platform, closely followed by a slender woman with flowing silvery-white hair and huge opalescent eyes.

"Thank you for gathering here on such short notice," Luke began. "I received news this morning of a pressing matter that call me away."

As if from a pebble tossed into a pond, a series of surprised murmurs rippled through the room. Jacen wondered if his uncle's im minent departure had anything to do with the messages brought by his father on the Falcon.

The blue eyes that looked out over the audience-kind eyes that seemed wise beyond their years-gave no hint of what the Jedi Master's mission might be.

"I don't know how long I will be gone, so I've asked one of my former students, the Jedi Tionne"-he gestured to the slender, shimmering-eyed woman beside him-"to supervise your training while I'm away. Not only does Tionne know my teachings almost as well as I do, but she has a rich knowledge of Jedi lore and history. As you are about to find out, she's well worth listening to."

This intrigued Jacen. He remembered hearing that she was not a particularly strong Jedi, but from the warm smile that passed between Luke and Tionne, he could tell that they understood each other well, and that Master Skywalker must have complete trust in his former student.

As Luke withdrew from the platform, leaving the students alone with Tionne, the silver-haired Jedi retrieved a curiously shaped stringed instrument from somewhere behind her. It consisted of two resonating boxes, one at either end of a slender fretted neck. The strings stretching across the instrument flared out in a fan pattern at both ends.

Seating herself on a low stool, Tionne began to strum. "I will tell you about a Jedi Master who lived long ago," she said. "This is the ballad of Master Vodo-Siosk Baas."

As she began to sing, Jacen agreed with his uncle; Tionne was indeed worth listening to. Her song rang clear and true. Its pure tones carried easily to the farthest corners of the great hall and transported them all to a time they had never witnessed. The music flowed around them, sweeping them along on currents of excitement and courage and triumph and sacrifice.

She sang of dire events that had taken place four thousand years earlier-how the strange, alien Jedi Master had been de stroyed by Exar Kun, one of his. own students who had turned to the dark side. Master Vodo had begged the other Jedi Masters not to do battle with Exar Kun, and had tried to reason with him alone-though his gentle hopes had ended in tragedy.

In the silence that followed her song, a flood of insight washed through Jacen as he realized that this Jedi was worth listening to for more than just her voice.

Tionne stood, to a collective sigh from everyone present. Jacen hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath.

"I trust my first lesson to you hasn't been too painful," she said with a merry twinkle in her pearly eyes. "Tomorrow I will give another lesson, after morning meal."

With that, the evening meeting ended. Some listeners remained seated, transfixed, as if trying to absorb the last trickles of music lingering in the room. Others left singly or in whispering groups, while still others stayed behind to talk with Tionne.

Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca found themselves free at last to talk. They huddled together and discussed Lowie's find. Em Teedee-carefully modulating his voice to an appropriate, secretive level-provided translations.

They speculated by turns about the strange glinting object that Lowbacca had seen out in the jungle. They came to only one conclu sion: at the earliest possible opportunity, they would go out together and investigate.

Tionne's morning ballad fell in a fine musical mist, drenching its listeners with wonder and ancient lore. Jacen sat in the second row with his brandy-colored eyes closed, concentrating on her words, trying to absorb everything the music had to teach him. It was just as well that his eyes were shut, since his view was completely blocked by the colorful bulk of Raynar wearing his finest robes.

As the last notes drained away, Jacen opened his eyes to find his sister staring at him in silent amusement. Neither Lowbacca nor Tenel Ka, who sat beside him, gave any indication that they had noticed Jacen's apparent absorption in the music. Then Tionne spoke, drawing Jacen's attention back to the silver-haired Jedi on the raised platform.

"A Jedi's greatest power comes not from size or from physical strength,"

she said. "It comes from understanding the Force-from trusting in the Force. As part of your Jedi training you will learn to build your confidence and belief through practice. Without that practice we may not succeed when it is most important. This is true of many skills in life.

Listen to a story.

"Once, a young girl lived by a lake. Simply by watching others, she learned much about how to swim. One day when her family was busy, the girl jumped into the deep water. Although she moved her arms and legs as she had seen other swimmers do, she could not keep her head above the water.

"Fortunately a fisherwoman jumped in and rescued her. The woman, a practiced swimmer, had not needed to think about how to swim, but the little girl-who had only learned by watching-did not have the skill even to stay afloat. After they were safely out of the water, the fisherwoman took the girl's hand and said, 'Come to the shallows, child, and I will teach you to swim.'"

Tionne paused as if lost in thought, her pearly eyes glittering. "So it is with the Force. Unless we practice what we learn, and unless we are tested, we never know we can trust in the Force if the need arises. That is why this Jedi academy is also called a praxeum. It is a place where we not only learn, but we put the learning to use. As with swimming, the more we practice, the more confidence we have. Eventually, our skill becomes second nature.

"The next several days I would like the beginning and intermediate students to practice one of the most basic skills: using the Force to lift. For today, practice lifting only something small-no bigger than a leaf."

Raynar interrupted in a blustery voice, "How can you expect us to strengthen our skills if you take us back to a child's level?"

Jacen rolled his eyes at Raynar's rudeness, but he had to admit that he had been wondering the same thing.

Tionne smiled down at Raynar without annoyance. "A good question. Let me give you an example. If you wanted to strengthen your arms, you might lift many stones one time, or you might lift one stone many times. It is the same with your Jedi skills. For today, practice just as I have asked you. It is not the only way to strengthen your skills, but it is one way.

There are always alternatives. I promise you will learn more than just how to lift a leaf."

Tionne dismissed the students. As they left the grand audience chamber and started down the worn stone stairs, Jaina pulled the other three young Jedi to a halt, her eyes dancing. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she asked.

Jacen, who did not know what she was thinking, nonetheless sensed her excitement and her eagerness to investigate Lowie's mys terious discovery.

Jaina shrugged. "What better place to practice lifting leaves than out in a jungle?"

8

"You sure this seat is safe?" Jacen asked as he squeezed himself into the cargo well behind the T-23's passenger seat.

"Of course it is," his sister replied automatically as she climbed into the front. "You like crawling into cramped spaces anyway."

"Only to catch bugs," he grumbled. "There's no cushioning back here."

The cargo well was much too small to accommodate Tenel Ka, who was taller and more solidly built than either of the twins. Jacen would have to settle for the back or be left behind; his sister would take her turn there on the return trip. He squirmed and settled in as the T-23's engines started with a roaring purr.

Lowie called a command over the sound of the warming repulsorlifts. Em Teedee said, "Master Lowbacca requests that you please be certain that your restraints are secure. He is interested in your utmost safety. We shall be departing momentarily."

Lowbacca's voice barked out again, and the droid amended his translation.

"Actually, Master Lowbacca might have said something closer to, 'Hold on, everyone. Here we go!'"

"Oh, blaster bolts. No crash straps either," Jacen observed as Jaina and Tenel Ka buckled themselves in up front.

The rebuilt T-23 lifted off with a small jerk. The wind howled past the rattling window plates as they picked up height and speed. Jacen felt the thrill of being airborne as the ion afterburners spluttered behind them.

Even cramped in the back, he was glad he hadn't stayed behind.

Jacen looked out through the scratched port as Lowbacca let the skyhopper skim just above the treetops, arrowing away from the Jedi academy into unexplored territory. Soon there were nothing but trees as far as Jacen could see through the scratched port, as lush and green as the sky above him was blue.

Though he enjoyed the lovely foliage below him, Jacen's legs began to cramp. By the time the T-23 dove down and came to rest in a small clearing, he could feel the engine vibrations all the way to his teeth.

Up front, Jaina and Tenel Ka unbuckled their restraints and scrambled nimbly out of the T-23. Jacen dragged himself from the cargo well, stretching his stiff legs as he stepped out into the tangled underbrush.

He rubbed the seat of his jumpsuit with both hands to get the circulation going again. "I think a leaf is about all I could lift right now!"

Lowie rushed to the edge of the clearing, beckoning the others. "Master Lowbacca says the tree holding the artifact is over here," Em Teedee called. "It has several broken branches, so he was able to locate it easily from the air."

Jaina looked in the direction that Lowbacca was pointing. "Well, what are we waiting for?" she said. Tenel Ka marched over to the young Wookiee, as if ready to carve a path through the jungle. Jacen took a long and wistful look at all the strange new plants he saw around him, but followed the others into the deep green shadows.

Lowbacca gestured up into the distant branches of an enormous Massassi tree. The trunk seemed as big around as one of the skyscrapers on city-covered Coruscant, and even the lowest branches were well out of Jacen's reach. But Lowie wanted them to climb up after him!

"Oh," said Jaina, a crestfallen look on her face, "I wouldn't get very far climbing that."

Lowbacca assured them, via Em Teedee, that the climb would be easy for a Wookiee. He offered to go up alone for the first investigation and report his findings so they could decide the next step.

"We can explore down here," Jacen suggested. "We might find some other pieces of... of whatever it is." Or maybe some interesting animals or fungus or insects, he thought hopefully.

Jaina and Tenel Ka readily agreed. Low-bacca swiped a hairy hand along the thick black streak that ran through the fur above his left eyebrow.

He swarmed up the trunk, swung into the lower branches, and soon disappeared from sight.

Jacen's stomach rumbled with hunger, and he hoped that Lowbacca would hurry. The three young Jedi trainees poked around in the underbrush, spiraling out from the T-23 in a wandering search pattern. Taking turns, they practiced their leaf-lifting assignment, fluttering leaves in the shrubbery, lifting dry forest debris from the damp and mossy ground.

Before long, Lowbacca came crashing back down through the thick branches.

He dropped to the ground near them and let out a loud Wookiee cry.

Jaina ran toward him, eager and interested. "Did you find it, Lowie?"

Lowbacca nodded vigorously.

"What was it?" Jaina asked. "Can you describe it?"

"Master Lowbacca believes it to be some sort of solar panel," Em Teedee translated as the Wookiee replied. Then the droid launched into a complete description.

Jaina felt her skin prickle with goose bumps. "Hmmmm," she said. "If I'm right, there should be a lot more to that artifact than what Lowie saw.

Let's keep looking."

Tenel Ka dug into a small supply pouch she carried with her and withdrew a pack of carbo-protein biscuits. "Here. Nourishment as we search."

Jacen chomped hungrily on his biscuit. "Just what are we looking for, Jaina?" he asked, speaking around a mouthful of crumbs.

"Scrap metal, machinery, another solar panel." Jaina shaded her eyes, scanning deeper into the thick jungles around them. "Well keep widening the circle of our search until we find something. What we're looking for shouldn't be too far away."

Jacen retrieved a flask of water from the T-23, took a gulp, and handed it to his sister. Jaina took a few mouthfuls of water and passed the flask on to Lowbacca. Then she set off at a trot for the base of the big tree. Jaina didn't look back to see if the others were following, and bit her lip, feeling a brief pang of guilt.

At times like this Jaina always seemed to assume leadership, just like her mother. But how could she help it? Her parents had raised all three of their children to assess a situation, weigh the alternatives, and make decisions.

"Let's spread out," she said.

"Great!" Jacen said, walking around the massive trunk toward a clump of dense undergrowth.

Jaina smiled, knowing full well that her brother's excitement came not from a desire to find the mysterious artifact, but from the opportunity to explore the jungle and examine its creatures more closely.

She was about to head into the underbrush herself when Lowbacca stopped her with a questioning growl. Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca says-and I personally am inclined to agree with him-that the jungle floor is not a safe place to split up. Even to speed up a search."

As impatient as she was to continue looking, Jaina stopped to consider.

Tenel Ka caught her eye, placed her hands on her hips, and nodded. "This is a fact."

Jaina gnawed at her lower lip again, thinking, and came to a decision.

"All right. We spread out a little but, but only as far as our line of sight. Good enough?"

The others' murmurs of agreement were interrupted by a loud squawking as a flock of reptile birds took flight from the bushes near where Jacen had been exploring. Jacen emerged from the bushes on his hands and knees, looking startled, but not displeased.

"No big discoveries," he reported, "but I did find this." He held out his palm. In it was a plump, furry gray creature, quivering in a small nest of glossy fibers.

Another animal. Jaina sighed with resignation. She might have guessed.

"Ah. A-hah," Tenel Ka said. Lowbacca bent forward to run a shaggy finger along the tiny creature's back.

"Look, Jaina," Jacen said, turning the fluffy nest in his hand. He pointed to a dull, flat loop of metal that was firmly attached to the mass of fibers.

"A ... buckle?" Jaina said, finally comprehending.

Her brother nodded. "Like the kind in crash webbing."

"Good work," Tenel Ka said with solemn approval.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina asked. "Let's keep going."

By midafternoon, though, Jaina began to get discouraged. Jacen, on the other hand, was intrigued by every crawling creature or insect they encountered.

"Do please try to be a bit more cautious!" Jaina could hear Em Teedee saying. "That's the third dent today. And I've lost count of how many scratches I've received while you've been exploring. Now if you would only be more attentive to-"

Em Teedee's admonishments were drowned out as Lowie gave a sharp bark of surprise behind a tangle of vines and branches. "Oh! Oh, my. Mistress Jaina, Master Jacen, Mistress Tenel Ka!" Em Teedee's voice was loud enough to startle not only Jaina but a number of flying and climbing creatures. "Do come quickly. Master Low-bacca has made a discovery."

Needing no further encouragement, all of them rushed to see what Lowbacca had found. Jaina felt her heart pounding in her chest, knowing and dreading what they would find.

They worked quickly, scratching and cutting their hands as they pulled away the thick plant growth from the heap of metallic wreckage. Jaina gasped as they finally exposed it-a rounded, tarnished cockpit large enough only for a single pilot, one squarish black solar panel crisscrossed with support braces. The other panel was missing, stuck up in the tree where Lowie had found it. But still the ship was unmistakable.

A crashed Imperial TIE fighter.

9

"But why would such a craft be here in the jungles of Yavin 4?" Tenel Ka asked, narrowing her eyes in concern as they worked to remove the debris from the ruined craft. "Is it an Imperial spy ship?"

Jaina shook her head. "Can't be. TIE fighters were short-range ships used by the Empire. They weren't equipped with hyperdrive, so there aren't many ways it could have gotten here."

Jacen cleared his throat. "Well, I can think of one way," he said, "but that would make this ship-let's see..."

"Over twenty years old..." Jaina breathed, finishing his sentence for him.

Lowbacca made a low, questioning noise, and Tenel Ka continued to look perplexed.

Jaina explained. "When the Empire built the first Death Star, it was the most powerful weapon ever made. They tested it by destroying Alderaan, our mother's homeworld. Then they brought it here to Yavin 4, to destroy the Rebel base."

As she spoke, Jaina pulled the last bit of brush away from the top canopy of the TIE fighter and looked inside. There were no bones. She slid into the musty cockpit.

"A lot of Rebel pilots died in one-on-one combat with the TIE fighters that protected the Death Star, and a lot of Imperial fighters were shot down too," Jacen said, picking up the story.

Jaina wrinkled her nose at the mildewy smell, the mold-clogged controls.

She ran her fingers over the navigation panels in the cockpit, closing her eyes and wondering what it must have been like twenty-some years ago to be a fighter pilot in the Battle of Yavin 4. She envisioned an enemy fighter swooping toward her in a strafing run, her engine hit, her tiny ship careening out of control. ...

Jacen's voice broke into her thoughts. "But then in the end, our dad flew cover for Uncle Luke's X-wing fighter while he took his final run. Uncle Luke made the shot that blew up the Death Star."

Tenel Ka nodded gravely, her braided red-gold hair like a wreath around her head. "And why is it called a TIE fighter?" she asked.

Jaina answered, speaking up from the cockpit, "Because it has twin ion engines. T-I-E, see?"

Ducking her head, she wormed her way to the engine access panels at the rear of the cockpit and pried open the tarnished metal plate. A squeaking rodent, disturbed from its hidden nest, scampered away, vanishing through a small hole in the hull.

Jaina tinkered with the engines, checking integrity, noting the rotted hoses and fuel lines. But overall, the primary motivators seemed intact, though she would have to run numerous diagnostics. She had plenty of spare parts in her room.

She stood up slowly in the cockpit and poked her head out again, then ran her callused hands along the side of the crashed TIE fighter. "You know, I think we could do it," Jaina said.

All eyes turned toward her, questioning.

"I think we could fix the TIE fighter."

Her brother stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, then clapped a palm to his forehead. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

As the whine of the T-23 skyhopper faded into the jungle distance, the frightened forest creatures settled back into their routines. They scuttled through the underbrush, chasing each other across the branches, predator and prey. The leaves stirred and flying creatures sent their cries from treetop to treetop, forgetting the intruders entirely.

Far below on the forest floor, the branches of a dense thicket parted. A worn and tattered black glove pushed a thorny twig aside.

The pilot of the crashed TIE fighter emerged from his hiding place into the newly trampled clearing.

"Surrender is betrayal," he muttered to himself, as he had done so many times before. It had become a litany during his years of rugged survival on the isolated jungle moon of Yavin.

The pilot's protective uniform hung in rags from his gaunt frame, worn to tatters and patched with furs from an incredible number of years living alone in the jungle. His left arm, injured during the crash, was drawn up like a twisted claw against his chest. He stepped forward, cracking twigs under his old boots as he made his way to the crash site that was no longer secret. He had camouflaged the wrecked Imperial craft many years ago, hiding it from Rebel eyes. But now, despite all his work, it had been discovered.

"Surrender is betrayal," he said again. He stared down at his fighter, trying to see what damage the Rebel spies had caused.

10

Over the next few days, Tionne increased the complexity of the young Jedi trainees' assignments, and the four companions practiced fine-tuning their control of the Force.

Jaina, Jacen, Lowie, and Tenel Ka found excuses to return again and again to the site of the crashed TIE fighter. With Jaina as the driving force, they took on the repair project as a group exercise-but they always managed to work in any assigned practice sessions during their jungle expeditions.

Although the idea was not flattering, Jaina was forced to admit that part of her motivation for this work was her envy of Lowbacca's personal T-23-she wanted her own craft to fly over the treetops. But she was also drawn by the challenge the wrecked TIE fighter represented. Its age and complexity offered a unique opportunity for learning about mechanics, and Jaina could not turn it down.

But the strongest reason for taking on the project-and perhaps the one that kept them all working without complaint-was that it forged a bond among the four friends. They learned to function as a team, to make the most of each person's strengths and to com pensate for each other's weaknesses. The strands of their friendships intertwined and wove together in a pattern as simple as it was strong. This bond included even Em Teedee, who learned to make verbal contributions at appropriate times and was gradually accepted as a member of their group.

Jaina spent most of her time overseeing the mechanical repairs, while Lowbacca concentrated on the computer systems. Jacen had ample opportunity to explore and to observe the local wildlife as, officially, he "searched" through the nearby underbrush for broken or missing components; he also made quick supply trips back to the academy in the T-23 for parts that Jaina or Lowbacca needed. Tenel Ka worked with quiet competence on any task that needed doing and was especially valuable in lugging new metal plates to patch large breaches in the TIE hull.

"Hey, Tenel Ka!" Jacen said. "What goes ha-ha-ha . . . thump!"

Her gray eyes looked at him, as lustrous as highly polished stones. "I don't know."

"A droid laughing its head off!" Jacen said, then started giggling.

"Ah. A-hah," Tenel Ka said. She considered this for a moment, then added without the slightest trace of mirth, "Yes, that is very funny." She bent back to her work.

From time to time Lowie climbed to the top of the canopy to meditate and absorb the solitude; the young Wookiee enjoyed his time alone, sitting in silence. Tenel Ka occasionally took short breaks to test her athletic skills by running through jungle under growth or climbing trees.

But Jaina preferred to stay with the downed TIE fighter, examining it from every angle and imagining possibilities. She con sidered no bodily position too difficult or undignified to assume while repairing the craft.

Jaina tucked her head under the cockpit control panel, with her stomach supported by the back of the pilot's seat. Her backside was sticking high in the air and her feet were kicking as she worked, when she felt a playful poke on the leg.

She extricated herself from the awkward position. Lowie handed her a datapad into which he had downloaded the schematics and specifications for a TIE fighter, taken from the main information files in the computer center back at the Great Temple. Jaina studied the data and looked over the list of computer parts Lowbacca needed.

"These should be pretty easy for Jacen to find," she said. "I have most of them right in my room."

Em Teedee spoke up. "Master Lowbacca wishes to know which systems you intend to concentrate on next."

Jaina's brow furrowed in judicious concentration. "We've already decided we won't be needing the weapons systems. I think the laser cannons work fine, but I don't intend to hook them up. I suppose the next step might be to work on the power systems. I haven't done much with them yet."

Jacen and Tenel Ka trotted up to join the discussion. "You will need the other solar panel," Tenel Ka said. "Up in the tree."

Jacen cocked an eyebrow at her, using Tenel Ka's own phrase. "This is a fact?" Tenel Ka did not smile, but nodded her approval.

Jacen folded his arms across his chest and looked pleased with himself.

"Does anyone remember the assignment Tionne gave us for today?"

"Cooperative lifting with one or more other students," Tenel Ka stated without hesitation.

Jaina clapped her hands and rubbed them together, scrambling out of the cramped cockpit. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

The process was much more difficult than they had anticipated, but in the end they managed it. Lowie and Tenel Ka climbed up into the tree to clear away the moss and branches that held the panel in place. Tenel Ka secured it with the thin fibercord from her belt, while Lowbacca added sturdy vines to help support the heavy slab. Jaina and Jacen watched from the lower branches of the tree, craning their necks to see.

"Everyone ready?" Jaina asked. "Okay-now concentrate," she said. She gave them a moment to observe the solar panel glittering in scattered light from the sky. They studied the piece of wreckage, grasping it with their thoughts.

"Now," Jaina said.

With that, four minds pushed upward, nudging. In a gentle, concerted motion they lifted the panel free of the branch where it had rested for decades. The large, flat rectangle wobbled in midair for a moment and then began to slowly descend. Tenel Ka kept her fibercord taut, easing the Force-lightened object down.

Together, they brought it to rest a few branches below where it had been.

Tenel Ka and Lowbacca untied the vines and the fibercord from the higher branch, climbed down, and retied the strands to the branch on which the panel now rested.

The process was not perfect. Mental coordination among the four friends proved difficult, and they each lost their grip more than once. But the vines and fibercord held, preventing a disaster.

By the time the exhausted companions brought the panel to the jungle floor and carried it to the crash site, all of them were panting and perspiring from the mental exertion.

Jaina sank down beside the TIE fighter with a weary groan. She flopped backward in the dirt and leaves, not caring for the moment that her hair would become as disheveled and full of twigs as her brother's usually was.

Lowie tossed them each a packet of food from the basket of supplies they brought with them every day. Jaina's packet landed on her stomach., and she rolled onto her side with a mock growl of indignation. As she faced a hole in the side of the broken TIE fighter, a sudden thought occurred to her.

"You know," she said, chin in hands. "I'd be willing to bet there's enough room in there to install a hyperdrive."

"You said that TIE fighters were short-range craft," Tenel Ka said.

Lowie responded with a contemplative sound as he thought this over. Jacen merely moaned at the mention of more work.

"They were designed to be short-range," Jaina said. "Never equipped with hyperdrives because the Emperor didn't want to sacrifice the maneuverability."

Jacen snorted. "Or maybe he didn't want any of his fighter pilots making a quick escape."

Jaina turned toward him and grinned. "I guess I never thought of it that way." Her face lit with enthusiasm as she looked at her friends. "But there's nothing to stop us from equipping this TIE fighter with a hyperdrive, is there? Dad gave me one to tinker with."

"It is a possibility," Tenel Ka said, without much enthusiasm.

They were all tired, Jaina knew. But her mind raced with the excitement of this new thought. She made a quick decision. "Okay, let's go back to the academy. I want to make some measurements. We'll call it a day."

Jacen sighed with relief. "I think that's been your best suggestion in hours."

Back again the next afternoon, Jacen lay flat on his stomach, his chin resting on one clenched fist as he surveyed the moist ground beneath a tangle of low, thick bushes. He left his feet sticking out from beneath the bushes so that the others could locate him easily should they look up from their work-though there was little chance of that. From behind him he could hear thumping and clinking as Jaina labored to install the hyper-drive in the TIE fighter.

A thick splat told him that Tenel Ka and Lowbacca were applying sealant over the hole patch at the base of the reattached solar panel. The others were all busy, leaving Jacen free to hunt for "missing parts" again.

He watched, fascinated, as a leaf-shaped creature that matched the blue-green color of the foliage around him attached itself to a branch. It extended a long mottled brown tongue that flattened against the twig in a perfect camouflage. Jacen could sense the leaf creature's anticipation.

Soon a crowd of minute insects, drawn by a smell Jacen could not discern, landed on the "branch" and became stuck fast. Jacen chuckled and shook his head as the leaf creature retracted its tongue with an audible fwoookt.

With nothing interesting to be seen on the ground, he gave the bush a small shake once the leaf creature departed. He was rewarded with a hissing rustle as a dislodged object fell near his elbow. He picked it up.