targeting lance toward the group. "Look out!" Jaina cried as the
refugees scattered and dove.
The weapon discharged and blazed holes through nearby trees. One
middle-aged man cried out and fell backward into the bushes with a
blackened hole through one shoulder. Then, after only a few seconds,
the laser ceased firing.
The young Jedi Knights waited in hiding for a few moments, expecting
another attack, but when the forest fell quiet again except for the
leftover squawks and rustlings of disturbed forest creatures, Jaina
stood up and made her way toward the source of the laser blasts.
She found the hidden weapon, its energy pack drained. "It's a
single-use munition," she said. "Strictly here to gun down one or two
trespassers."
"It was made only to kill," Tenel Ka said. "To kill anyone. Not
specifically an enemy, or a friend ... anyone."
"This is a different kind of war than anything we've seen so far, Jaina
said, her expression grim. "With no objective in mind, no military
targets. The factions just want to destroy everything."
"You see how horrible the miners are?" one villager said. "They plant
burrowing detonators in our cropland, and look what they've done in
this forest, where we have to hunt! I can't believe your father wants
us to talk peace with them."
"Let's just get to the mountains and take it from there," Jacen said.
"I'm sure Anja will put in a good word for us."
After encountering these two deadly traps, they proceeded with the
utmost caution, and continued on for hours without further incident.
"Not finding any booby traps is even more nerve-racking than stumbling
upon one," Jacen muttered.
Finally, after what seemed an interminable time, they paused for a
rest. A few villagers had found edible fruit on a tree, which they
passed around to their exhausted and hungry companions. They had been
through a terrible ordeal, but over the years of civil war they had
become inured to such circumstances. They walked with numb shock,
fearing another trap.
Jaina and Tenel Ka suggested that Em Teedee scan the fruit for
implanted poisons, but the little droid happily pronounced each one of
the red scaly clusters to be clean of contamination.
Lowie looked up at a tall, silver-trunked tree and chuffed a
suggestion. "Master Lowbacca wishes to climb up to the canopy and take
a look around," Em Teedee said. "He believes it might be useful in
making certain we're close to the mountain village."
"I agree," Jaina said. "Go take a look around, Lowie."
With his lanky arms and legs, the Wookiee scrambled from one branch to
another, in no time disappearing into the mass of silvery-blue
leaves.
Lowbacca loved to climb tall trees and sit in solitude. The
Wookiee probably wanted to rest up there, but they couldn't sit back
and wait.
With a crashing of small branches, Lowie bounded down, leaping from
branch to bough, enjoying the freedom. He landed on both feet in the
middle of the clearing, and gave his quick report with barks and
growls.
"We are very close to the edge of the forest," Em Teedee said. "I am
so pleased to be nearly out of this dismal place."
"Then let's get moving," Jacen said. "I'm anxious to have our whole
group back together."
With a collective groan of weariness, the villagers struggled into
motion again. The man who had been injured from the laser blast was
carried along by two of his companions. They moved slowly, with
exquisite care, and Jacen was very proud that they had not lost any of
their party through the various traps planted among the trees.
One of the villagers called for them to move left in order to avoid a
flower-filled meadow. Jacen saw nothing suspicious, though he did feel
a tingling through the Force, warning him of danger. With a wan grin,
the young man slipped over to another tree trunk and pushed a hidden
button, switching off a tiny holographic generator. Part of the placid
meadow disappeared, revealing a jagged-edged hole filled with durasteel
spikers that gleamed in the forest light.
I "The mountain miners aren't the only ones who can plant traps," he
said proudly.
Jacen felt sickened. "That's no way to end a war," he muttered,
thinking that Anja's villagers might have fallen into that deadly
trap.
"You've seen what the miners have done to us," one farmer said.
"How can you fault our people for defending ourselves?"
"This is no defense," Tenel Ka said.
Soon they could see daylight and cliffs through the tattered edge of
the forest. The mountain and its steep pathway lay ahead.
As they were about to emerge from the forest, though, just when Jacen
thought they had passed through without incident, one member of the
group close to Lowbacca stepped on a flat stone, which triggered a
detonator that blew up beneath one of the wide-trunked trees.
The booby trap didn't kill the woman who had triggered it, but instead
blasted the roots from the huge tree and shoved it back toward them.
Its sprawling branches crashed through the adjoining trees as it
tumbled.
"Look out!" Jacen cried.
Lowie roared and slashed at the oncoming branches with his
lightsaber.
The other villagers scattered, screaming. One ran straight between two
microfilament-laced trees and died an instant, bloody death. Another
villager stepped on a small explosive, which blew him into the air
before he fell dead and broken atop the thick-trunked tree as it
crashed in among where they had all been standing only moments
before.
The villagers wailed. Jacen felt a sharp pain in his heart. "We
almost made it through," he said.
:,We're all going to die," one of the villagers said.
'No you're not," Jaina snapped. "We just have to keep moving."
Raising her chin high, she walked bravely forward, accompanied by her
brother and friends. The villagers followed, relieved to stand in the
sunlight again, where they could look up at the sky after so many hours
in the murky shadows. But now, free of the forest at last, they gazed
at the steep pathways chiseled into the gray granite sides of the
mountain, and they appeared on the verge of despair again.
"Come on. It's up this road," Jacen said. He could see the cave
openings-numerous mining tunnels and the large, smooth-edged mouth
where Jacen figured the mining village must be located. "My father and
Ynos have already been in there, making arrangements for us. I'm sure
they'll have food and water and a safe place for us all to rest."
"Or they'll just use blasters to gun us down as we walk toward them,"
one farmer said.
"And maybe a comet will crash down right now and wipe out the mountain
village," Jaina said, impatient. "You can worry all you want, but I'd
like to get where I can rest."
They started up the steep switchbacked pathway. Since it was a road
used by the miners themselves, Jacen didn't expect to find any pitfalls
planted there.
Though the clear sunlight baked down, the air grew thin and cooler.
Overhead, wispy white clouds did little to cool off the day. The
rugged mountainside provided no shade, but Jacen and his companions led
the others on a slow, steady march. He could sense people watching him
from above, thought he saw faces peering out from the honeycombed mine
shafts in the rock face.
Now that they had accepted their destination, the villagers plodded
along without complaint, without any comment whatsoever. Jacen could
tell they were at the end of their rope. They had little to live for,
and little hope that anything would get better soon.
Finally, panting and sweating, Jacen and his sister arrived at the top
edge of the cliff city. Wearily, with a heavy arm, he gestured down to
the group that had straggled out along the steep path. "Come on. It's
cool, and there's shade up here."
The city seemed quiet, though he could see people in doorways, watching
them suspiciously. But he could think only about getting inside and
resting. The farmers trudged in, standing in the cool rock grotto,
where burn marks on the floor showed that many spacecraft had come and
gone.
Jacen's heart surged when he saw the Millennium Falcon, landed off to
one side with a rippling rock wall arcing overhead. "See? We'.z all
safe now," he said as Tenel Ka and Lowbacca brought up the rear.
"Oh, my. This is much better," Em Teedee quipped.
Then, when all the villagers stood inside the cave, the miners marched
out in a well-coordinated group. Others poured out of the mining
tunnels below and came up from the rear, encircling them. Jacen saw no
sign of his father or Anja, nor did he see any welcoming expression on
the miners' faces. Each one of them bore a weapon of some sort.
"As enemies of the mining community," one man spoke up, "we will hold
you as prisoners for crimes you have committed against our people."
Zekk found himself imprisoned in the same stone-walled room with Han
and Anakin Solo. The miners provided them with some sparse
comforts-food and water, blankets and furniture. Anja's work,
perhaps?
Zekk wondered. Zekk guessed they were being treated far better than
the other captive villagers, though their repeated questions about Ynos
and the farmers went unanswered.
After hours without explanations, the dark-haired and bearded leader
Elis came to them with surprise guests in tow, surrounded by guards
from the mountain villages.
"Jaina!" Zekk cried. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca also came with
them.
Han Solo leapt to his feet to see his children safely arrived. "You
made it through the forest then," Han said. "I was worried about
you."
"Had a pretty unpleasant welcoming committee when we got up here to the
mining settlements, though," Jaina said. "What do these people think
they're doing?"
"They think they can end their war this way," Zekk mumbled.
"You don't understand the type of people we're dealing with," Elis
said, his voice a low growl. "The fanners have done heinous things-"
"But those people were under my protection," Han insisted. "I'm from
the New Republic. I trusted you to recognize my diplomatic
immunity."
"And we are not harming you or your close friends, General Solo," Elis
said. "You personally have caused us no damage. Ynos and his
murderous farmers have done us great harm, though, and we will not
treat them like visiting royalty." A storm seemed to pass across
Elis's face, but he brought his emotions under control. "It was only
out of courtesy and respect for your position that we did not execute
every one of those villagers as they arrived."
"That's something at least," Han said, considering Elis through
narrowed eyes.
"We've seen the cropland where you planted all those burrowing
detonators. Those weapons take their toll on innocent people, as well
as fighters," Jaina said. "I'd call that an act of terrorism, not a
brave military strike."
"There are no innocents in the fanning villages," Elis said. "I don't
know what lies they've told you. Ynos tries to make himself appear
helpless and pitiable, but he has the blood of hundreds of miners on
his hands."
"Ah. Aha. Yet he himself stepped on one of your burrowing
detonators," Tenel Ka said coldly. "That is how he lost his leg."
"His heart was dead long before that," Elis answered. "For many years
we had a booming business here. My mountain workers labored hard to
still sell whatever we find to offworld traders, smugglers, anyone
brave enough to come to this world and take the meager riches we have
to offer. In exchange, they bring us supplies and equipment and
food."
"And weapons, too," Zekk pointed out. "We stopped one of those
shipments."
"We must protect ourselves," Elis answered, standing at the doorway to
the stone chambers. "We have a right to do that, don't we? The
fanners won't trade with us anymore. We would starve if it weren't for
the smugglers. The fanners once provided us with what we needed, and
we did the same for them.
"But because the bloodthirsty rebellion brought its message here to
Anobis, beyond where even the Emperor cared to look, everything came
crashing down. Anobis could have remained neutral, stayed out of all
the fighting, but the farmers had to choose a side. They stopped
trading with us. I ask you, what good does politics do any of us, if
we're barely managing to survive from day to day?"
He gestured for them to come with him out into the dimly lit tunnels.
"Come, we have something to show you," Elis said. "You need to see
this."
Han went first. Zekk took Jaina's hand and followed, with the others
close behind. They walked through stone corridors, excavated tunnels
that jerked left and right, curving sideways and down as the miners
followed veins of precious minerals. As the miners worked the
mountains, it looked as though they left open chambers where new
families built houses into the sides of the rough walls using rubble
and tailings from the mine mortared together.
Finally the group reached a place where temporary support beams were
hammered into place. Sealant foam had been sprayed on the ceilings and
walls, and crossbeams stretched from one side of the tunnel to the
other. Past several posted DANGER signs, Zekk could see that glowlamps
had been crushed and the ceiling had fallen down in broken slabs.
The debris was pale and fresh, and the air smelled dusty. Zekk heard
tiny pebbles trickling down as the rockfall settled.
Elis gestured with a broad grimy hand. His fingernails were broken, as
if he did most of his work by grasping the rock with his bare
fingers.
"This was one of our largest mining chambers, our most active vein.
Numerous tunnels led to this place-and now what do you see?"
"Just rubble," Zekk said.
"You don't want to see what's buried in that rubble," Elis said, his
voice hollow. "An entire mining crew was in there. Sixteen men and
women, working hard at excavating. There are many tunnels like
this......
"Was it a rock slide?" Jaina asked.
"No. The fanning villagers did this," Elis said. "Commandos come in
the night. They make their way through the forest, wait for sundown,
then race up the pathway and into our mine access shafts. Their sonic
punchers are quite effective. They slip them inside active tunnels,
hiding them in the shadows behind stones or at floor level in cracks in
the rocks where no one can see them. Then they set an activation timer
and flee back into the night like the cowards they are."
"What are sonic punchers?" Jacen asked.
"Motion-activated grenades," Elis said, his lips curling, his teeth
pressed so tightly together that Zekk thought they might crack at any
moment. "It's not enough for the farming villagers just to destroy our
tunnels or hinder our work. These weapons are more insidious than
that.
A sonic puncher waits until someone comes by. When it explodes, a
person gets killed. Every time."
He nodded toward the rubble pile; faint pale dust sifted into his dark
hair. "As a fresh mining crew entered this grotto, their movements set