DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR
by
KEVIN J. ANDERSON and REBECCA MOESTA
BOULEVARD BOOKS, NEW YORK
To our nieces and nephews whose pride in us is both flattering and
energizing
Trinity Workman
Ashley Woehrle
Michael Woehrle
Shawn O'Donnell
Devin O'Donnell
Sarah Jones
Cary Jones
Daniel Jones
Spencer Jones
Amanda Moesta
Brandon Moesta
Wyatt Moesta
acknowledgments
Writing each volume of the Young Jedi Knights requires the help of many
different people--Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and Lucy Wilson at
Lucas-film Licensing; Ginjet Buchanan and Jessica Faust at Boulevard
Books; Dave Dorman, cover artist extraordinaire; Vonda Mclntrye (who
created the character Lusa); Mike Stackpole for his help with Evir
Derricote and the plague; A. C. Crispin for her help with Aryn Dro and
Bornan Thul; Kaisa Wuo-rinen for her beautiful name and for being a
faithful fan; Nick Peterson for the joke; Lillie E.
Mitchell, Catherine Ulatowski, and Angela Kato at WordFire, Inc.; and
Jonathan Cowan, our first test-reader.
A special thanks to all of the fans and devoted readers whose enthusiasm
and support gave us the energy and encouragement we needed to keep
writing.
A KNOCK AT the wooden door startled Jaina Solo out of her reverie. She
had to blink a few times to orient herself as she shook off memories of
recent events.
Her gaze swept around her stone-walled room, across the sleeping pallet
and the small work desk by the window slit. Against one wall, neatly
stacked containers of spare cyberfuses, salvaged circuit loops, and
miniature gears gave evidence of her love for electronics and tinkering.
When Jaina heard the second knock, she glanced toward the arched
doorway. "Oh--come in!" she called, and her twin brother pushed open
the newly repaired door.
Jacen's eyes, the same brandy-brown color as her own, shone with barely
contained excitement. "Hey, guess what? My gort egg is finally about
to hatch! It's
making weird noises and rocking around. Wanna come watch?"
It took a moment for Jacen's news to sink in.
"Sure," she said, proud to know that the incubator she had built for
Jacen's gort egg--a gift from their father, Han Solo--had worked so
well. "I'll be right there. I'm just finishing up something. Give me
five minutes."
Jacen gave her a curious look. The room held no obvious projects that
could not wait until after the hatching. "Okay, but hurry--that egg
could hatch anytime now. I'm going to get Tenel Ka." He raced out of
the room.
Jaina smoothed her straight brown hair back behind her ears and turned
to face the tiny holocam that sat in front of her on her desk almost
hidden by a mound of spare parts. "Let's try this one more time, from
the top," she muttered. Then, taking a deep breath, she switched on the
holocam.
"Hello, Zekk. Things are pretty quiet here on Yavin 4. I really
miss--well, we all miss you. I wish you'd reconsider and come back to
the Jedi academy. Uh-oh. That's no good." She flicked the tiny holocam
off, erased her message, and flicked it on again. She cleared her
throat and started over.
things at the academy just haven't been the same since you left.
It seems like such a long time since we last saw you."
Jaina switched off the recorder again. "Oh, great.
That was cheery," she scolded herself. "Guaranteed to send him running
to the Outer Rim Territories and beyond."
She closed her eyes and imagined Zekk was right here in front of her . .
. his emerald eyes alive with intelligence, his almost-black hair tied
back at the nape of his neck ....
Opening her eyes again, she reset the recorder to the beginning and
readjusted her features to look more happy and relaxed. She actually
felt calmer then, and switched the holocam back on. One more time.
Forcing a twinkle into her eye, she flashed him the same lopsided grin
that she and Jacen had inherited from their father.
"Hi, Zekk. Hope you get this hololetter soon. I recorded a few others
and gave them to old Peck-hum.
He said he'd send the messages to you, but he couldn't guarantee when
you would get them." She cleared her throat and kept talking.
"We're all busy as ever, still at work rebuilding the temples."
She winced at the memory of the Shadow Academy attack Zekk himself had
helped to engineer, but plunged ahead and steered her thoughts toward
safer topics. "Seems like each time we get settled in, something comes
up and I'm off with Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie on some new adventure.
Not as exciting as the life of a bounty hunter trainee, maybe, but it
keeps us on our toes."
She bit her lower lip and thought for a second.
"By the way, nothing fresh to report about Bornan Thul's disappearance
yet. In fact, things only seem to be getting worse. We went to a
planet called Kuar to look for clues and wound up tangling with a batch
of combat arachnids instead. You should're seen the battle! Anyway,
Thul's brother Tyko showed up afterward to help us search. That night
we were attacked by assassin droids led by IG-88!
We fought in the catacombs, but there were so many droids and combat
arachnids! IG-88 snatched Tyko Thul right in front of our eyes--and
there was nothing we could do to stop it. Now both Raynar's father and
his uncle Tyko are missing."
Jaina shook her head. "I know you're looking for Bornan Thul, too. Have
you caught any news on your end?" she added hopefully.
"Wish we could find something good to tell Raynar when we see him next.
Last we heard, he was still in hiding with the Bornaryn fleet--the
trading ships his parents own. We tried to send messages, but we can't
tell if word got through." She sighed. "Course, I have no idea if this
letter'11 get through to you, either.
"Anyhow, if you run into the fleet or get any word about Bornan or Tyko
Thul, we'd sure like to hear from you." Jaina stopped, blushed slightly.
"Well, we'd like to hear from you anyway, if you get the chance.
I'm rambling, so I guess I should sign off now. Peckhum will encrypt
this message and send it out to all the bars, cantinas, smuggler's
dens..." She grinned. "You know, all those places where scoundrels and
bounty hunters hang out. I'll send another hololetter when I have time.
Until then, may the Force be with you." She smiled one more time.
"Bye, Zekk."
Jaina stopped recording and nodded. "That ought to do it--not too gushy
or emotional." She really hated having to walk on eggshells when she
spoke to an old friend.
Eggshells. Egg.t
She had completely forgotten about Jacen's gort egg hatching!
Slipping the hololetter into a pocket of her flight suit, she dashed for
Jacen's room.
Only one room of the Great Temple boasted an entire wall of terrariums,
incubators, cages, and aquariums on sturdy stone shelves: the room
occupied by Jacen Solo. On most days at the Jedi academy, Jacen spent
an hour, or sometimes two, feeding and caring for his various pets,
using the Force to send them pleasant thoughts and to sense anything
they needed.
seen before.
"The shell appears . . . flawless," Tenel Ka said, holding her hand
above the spheroid egg.
Under the light of the incubator, the pearly pink shell gleamed softly.
Jacen glanced at the warrior
girl who crouched beside him watching the egg.
The egg made a sudden rocking movement, but Tenel Ka didn't flinch.
"Pretty neat, huh?" Jacen said.
"A beautiful color," she remarked.
"Uh-huh," Jacen said, though at the moment he was admiring the red-gold
of Tenel Ka's hair, some of which was loose and flowing, the rest caught
up in braids that fell forward over the shoulders of her green
lizard-hide armor.
"May I touch your egg?" Tenel Ka asked. She nodded toward the object,
which had once again
begun to rock and emit clicking noises.
"Uh . . . sure," Jacen said.
"Did I miss it?" Jaina burst into the room. "Did it hatch yet?"
The pearly egg gave a soft thump-thump and rolled up against one wall of
the incubator.
"Looks like you're right on time." Jacen moved a bit closer to Tenel Ka,
ostensibly to give his sister a better view of the incubator's front
panel.
Jaina glanced around the room before plopping herself on the floor
beside him. "Where's Lowie?"
she asked.
"He has not yet arrived," Tenel Ka said.
"I told him about the hatching," Jacen added. "He said he needed to
stretch his legs, but he should be here any minute." The pearl-pink
sphere in the incubator bounced a few times and made a louder ticking
noise.
"Come on, little one," Jacen coaxed, leaning closer to the incubator.
"You can do it."
A moment later, a warbling bellow could be heard just outside the
smashed window opening in Jacen's room. All three young Jedi turned
just in time to see Lowie swing through the opening in an
uncharacteristic display of swashbuckling bravado.
Part of the window area had been demolished during the Shadow Academy
attack, but since there was no major structural damage, Jacen was in no
hurry to get it repaired. He liked the fresh air.
Now the lanky, ginger-furred Lowbacca landed neatly on the flagstones,
smoothed a large hand over the black streak of fur that ran up over his
head above the left eye and down his back, and roared a Wookiee
greeting.
Tenel Ka raised an eyebrow and glanced at Lowie. "A fine entrance,
friend Lowbacca," she observed. "I will remember it."
"Dear me, I do hope we haven't arrived too late," Em Teedee said.
The little silver translating droid was clipped to his usual place on
Lowie's syren-fiber belt. "I've never had the opportunity to witness a
gort hatching before."
As if on cue, the gort egg made a sharp clacking noise. Lowie crossed
the room in three long strides and crowded between Jacen and Jaina on
the floor.
The gort egg knocked loudly, bounced, and rolled
until it rested against the front panel of the incubator.
"Good," Jacen said softly. "That's it--you've almost got it. A few
more times now."
Click-click. Thunk. Clack.
Jacen touched his fingers to the transparisteel.
"There's a warm, friendly place waiting for you," he whispered.
With one more click and another thunk, a tiny fissure appeared in the
surface of the shell.
Lowie gave a thoughtful rumble. Jaina drew in a sharp breath and bit
her lower lip. Tenel Ka reached out and placed her hand just next to
Jacen's on the clear front panel, her fingers barely touching his.
Jacen felt soothing, welcoming thoughts join his own and flow toward the
egg.
The egg tapped and bounced. Another crack appeared.
A loud noise at the doorway interrupted them as one of the New Republic
soldiers stationed on the jungle moon during the reconstruction
activities stuck his helmeted head into the room. He blinked, looking
somewhat confused. "Excuse me, I was trying to find a refresher unit."
The soldier made a hasty retreat and continued urgently down the hall.
The young Jedi Knights turned their attention back to the hatching egg.
"Oh, I can scarcely bear the suspense!" Em Teedee said in a hushed
voice. "Master Lowbacca, if I might impose on you for just a moment? I
should like to get a closer look."
Lowie unclipped the little droid from his belt and held him up to the
incubator for an unobstructed view. The gott egg bounced and rocked,
bumping itself repeatedly against the clear front panel.
"Come on, you can do it," Jacen whispered.
Crack. A piece of shell, perfectly triangular in shape, fell away from
the side of the egg. Then the egg jumped and rolled until the
triangular opening was on top. Suddenly a downy ball of blue fluff
poked through the hole. The fluff parted, like two halves of a curtain
pulling aside, to reveal an inquisitive sapphire-blue eye.
"Hey! Hello there," Jacen said gently.
The sapphire eye went wide, then nictated a few times, as if it could
not believe what it saw. It swiveled on its down-covered eyestalk for a
complete view of its surroundings. Another ball of fluff appeared
through the hole in the egg, and a second sapphire-blue eye blinked
furiously at them. The two fluffy eye-balls bobbed up and down on their
stalks, looking first at each other, then around the incubator. When
the two eye-balls were joined by a third puff of downy blue that blinked
sleepily at them, Jaina giggled.
"Oh my!" Em Teedee said. "How many ocular appendages does this creature
possess?"
Jacen shrugged. "Just three . . . I think." Tenel
10 Ka's hand dropped away from the incubator, and she looked
at Jacen in surprise.
The eye-balls bobbed wildly. A hollow tapping sound came from inside
the remaining eggshell.
Finally the shell broke apart into a dozen pieces, revealing the tiny
gort hatchling.
Blue fluff clothed every square centimeter of the creature, except for
the wide, flat beak set a third of the way down its little body.
The rounded body, as large as Jacen's fist, perched atop a pair of short
legs, supported by broad, flat feet. The three toes were splayed for
balance, and the gort's thin prehensile tail curled into the air behind
it. The tip of the tail reached forward to scratch one of the gort's
eyestalks, as if it were confused.
"Hello, little girl," Jac
en said. He turned to the others.
"Don't ask me how I know it's a girl. I just do."
Lowie gave an urf of laughter, and tapped one finger against the
incubator's front panel. All three of the gort's eyestalks retracted
into its body, and the eyes nictated shut, so that the creature looked
like a lump of blue down.
"What is her name?" Tenel Ka asked.
All three eyestalks extended again and the sapphire eyes blinked open.
"She blinks a lot," Jacen said. "I think I'll call her Nicta."
Jacen slid open the feeding chute in the incubator; several insects and
grubs he had collected cascaded into the feeding dish. "There you go,
Nicta. Morning meal."
With a warbling sound, Artoo-Detoo entered Jacen's student quarters.
"Artoo, what brings you here?" Jaina said.
The silver, blue, and white barrel-shaped droid beeped and twittered a
rather long explanation.
"Uh, Em Teedee?" Jacen said, still preoccupied with his new pet.