the race, publicity seekers and HoloNet reporters pestered them
constantly, taking their images, interviewing them, asking them what it
was like to receive such an honor.
In the history of the Derby, no crew so young had ever won the
challenge. Upon discovering that these were Jedi trainees, some of the
losers cried "foul," claiming that the use of the Force gave an unfair
advantage-though the Rock Dragon had not taken advantage of the
permitted mechanical modifications, as most of the other contestants
had.
Fortunately the controversy died down quickly. The newspeople had
other planets in the galaxy to dash off to, and Ord Mantell preferred
to keep media attention to a minimum. Large groups of organized
smugglers-some of them rivals, some allies-were a powerful political
force, and they managed to shoo away the reporters shortly after the
Derby ended.
Some of Ord Mantell's most prestigious "businessmen" (important
smugglers, Jaina presumed) had invited Han Solo to a banquet to thank
him for his work as Grand Marshal, no doubt in an attempt to curry
favor with the husband of the New Republic's Chief of State. Jaina
smiled as she thought of this possibility: her father had nothing to
gain by taking bribes, but she doubted the smugglers would realize
this. Jaina wondered if Czethros would be there.
Meanwhile, the Solo children spent the afternoon with their friends in
the docking bay where the Falcon was berthed. At Han Solo's request,
Zekk had been allowed to dock the Rock Dragon in the same secure V.I.P
bay where Jaina had landed the Falcon, so that the Grand Marshal's ship
and the Derby winner were isolated and protected in the same security
area.
When the twins told their friends about their adventure during the
trial run of the obstacle course, Tenel Ka immediately suspected an
assassination attempt. The warrior girl tossed her red-gold braids and
squared her shoulders, obviously ready for action. She'd had plenty of
experience with political intrigues in the tough environment of the
Royal House of Hapes.
Lowie expressed concern and Em Teedee dutifully translated, though
Jaina could already make out many of the ginger-furred Wooklee's
words.
"Master Lowbacca suggests that we look at the space mine debris.
Perhaps with some attentive analysis, we can determine the mines'
origin."
"Good idea, Em Teedee," Jaina said absently, then looked up into
Lowie's golden eyes. "I mean, Lowie."
The little translating droid detached himself from Lowie's fiber belt
and floated in the air on his microrepulsorjets, bobbing about the
docking bay. They went to the storage locker near the Falcon, where
Han had insisted on keeping the evidence, believing that only he and
his New Republic technicians could be trusted to perform a thorough
analysis.
"For some reason," Jaina said, "Dad isn't too confident that the people
on Ord Mantell will give us an honest answer."
Jacen said, "They're probably more interested in keeping their
smuggling records secret."
"Secrets are fine," Zekk said, "except when one of those secrets holds
the key to who tried to kill you."
On a worktable mounted to the docking bay wall, Jaina spread out the
twisted fragments that had been scooped up by the Falcon's tractor
beam. The young Jedi Knights pressed closer. Not much remained after
the mines' detonation and vaporization in space, but Anakin scrutinized
the shrapnel carefully and began to sort the pieces into piles he knew
went to individual mines. Jaina let her younger brother work, knowing
how well he was able to solve puzzles and visualize the way pieces fit
together in three dimensions.
In short order, Anakin had several partial mines reassembled. Lowie
and Jaina helped him with the wiring, finding parts of serial numbers
and determining the initial configuration using the two duds as a
reference. The duds were dangerous, though they had been defused. If
the mines had not detonated as programmed, Jaina didn't trust them to
behave properly when deactivated either.
Lowie growled as he picked up some of the pieces with his long
fingers.
Zekk studied the shrapnel as well. "I think these are contraband war
materials," he said. "So much smuggling goes on through Ord Mantell,
this could have come from a black-market weapons merchant."
Jacen suggested, "Didn't Czethros say something about a civil war on a
nearby planet? Anobis? The smugglers are supplying them with
munitions."
"But were those mines out there just dumped by a gun runner who was
about to be caught," Jaina asked, "or were they intentionally set up to
take us out of the picture?"
Jacen sighed. "With all those HoloNet news reporters here covering the
race, you'd think some of them would want to do a story about that
terrible war everybody's talking about."
"That would be too dangerous," Zekk said with a snort. "They'd rather
do a nice, fun story about a space race." Jaina set down one of the
broken space mines and shook her head.
"We're not going to find out anything else unless we learn who some of
the weapons dealers are. But for now ... I'm hungry!" She smiled at
Zekk, then turned to Tenel Ka. "Don't suppose you upgraded the
food-prep units on the Rock Dragon yet?"
Tenel Ka nodded. "This is a fact. They are now progrwnmed to provide
the best Hapan cuisine."
"Sounds good-I'm starved." Jacen said, then looked over at the warrior
girl. "In fact, let me push the buttons so I can say I made you a fine
lunch."
"That would be most appreciated, friend Jacen."
Ducking inside the Rock Dragon, Jacen tinkered with the food-prep units
until they produced some kind of meal whose name he couldn't
pronounce.
Tenel Ka called it "authentic" and "delicious"; Jaina found it
"interesting."
They laughed and talked, sharing food and friendship. Jaina especially
enjoyed having Zekk as a close friend again, rather than an enemy or a
guilt-ridden young man. Zekk was rapidly becoming the person she had
known for so many years. No, not the same person-better. More
mature.
Around a mouthful of food, Jacen said, "Hey, stop me if you've heard
this one. A bounty hunter, a Jedi Knight, and a Jawa trader walk into
a cantina-" A resounding chorus of "We've heard that one!" rang
through the cabin.
In the middle of a swirling gelatinous dessert that insisted on
crawling around the plates by itself, Tenel Ka sat up straight and
alert, her eyebrows raised as if something was wrong. Lowie also
growled.
"what's up?" Jacen asked.
"I sense something," Tenel Ka said. "I would like to investigate."
She stepped out of the Rock Dragon, moving with feline grace, reaching
out with her senses. Jaina watched the warrior girl, admiring the
smoothness of her actions. Although she had lost her left arm in a
lightsaber battle with Jacen, Tenel Ka ha
d not allowed the handicap to
slow her down.
The docking bay was silent, except for the hum of machinery, the
ventilation system, and the distant sky traffic overhead through the
rooftop doors. The bay walls were smooth gray metal. The Millennium
Falcon sat unattended in shadows.
Tenel Ka froze for a moment, then stepped away from the Rock Dragon,
flicking her granite-gray gaze from side to side as she walked deeper
into the docking bay. Jaina stood beside Lowie at the hatch. The
young Wookiee's fur bristled, and she could feel his uneasiness.
Tenel Ka stood stock still in the middle of the large room, her
shoulders rigid, her arm partially bent at her side. She scanned the
wall and studied the shadows, the old lubricant stains and smoke smears
from hundreds of landings and takeoffs. She took three steps closer to
the small workbench where the recovered space mine fragments had been
spread out.
Tenel Ka waited, narrowed her eyes, listened, and finally pulled out
her rancor-tooth lightsaber. Jaina couldn't figure out what the
warrior girl was doing. The walls remained gray and featureless.
Tension hung thick in the air. Finally, when the warrior girl held up
and switched on the glowing turquoise blade ... the shadows on the wall
began to move!
Jaina gasped. Lowie surged past her and ran to help. Figures on the
walls shifted, and Jaina could make out gray-skinned creatures, vaguely
humanoid. They moved like spiders with angular arms and legs that
allowed them to crawl up the metal walls. The colors on their smooth,
clwnmy skin shifted, patterns of stains on the walls reflected in their
body pigmentation. When they held still, the chameleon-like creatures
were almost invisible-but now that Tenel Ka had startled them, they
were more easily seen. These shadows might be identical in color to
the walls, but the play of light exposed them.
Em Teedee cried, "Oh, dear! What are those creatures? I'm certain
they're not at all friendly."
One of the gray-skinned things scuttled down, snatched up an intact dud
space mine, and scrambled back up the wall toward an air vent near the
ceiling. Another chameleon-thing grabbed two more fragments.
"They're stealing the evidence!" Zekk said.
Then all the young Jedi Knights charged toward the docking bay wall to
join the fray. Lightsabers ignited: Lowie's molten-bronze blade that
was nearly as wide as Jaina's arm, her own electric-violet sword, and
Jacen's emerald green. Zekk, who had forsaken his lightsaber upon
returning to the Jedi academy, now drew a handy old blaster.
Thinking fast, Anakin raced to the Rock Dragon's communications console
and sounded an alarm, calling for the authorities.
One of the chameleon-skinned creatures dropped from above to land on
Tenel Ka's shoulder, driving her to the ground, its hands around her
neck. Jacen tackled the thing and knocked it off his friend. Tenel Ka
recovered quickly. Soon she and Jacen stood side by side with their
lightsabers, driving the creature back.
Several other creatures ran back to the wall, pressed themselves
against it, and vanished in front of Jaina's eyes. But she knew they
were there. Zekk reached up with his blaster, turned the setting to
"stun," and fired at the blank spot on the wall. Circular blue arcs
rippled out to illuminate the lumpy form of a chameleon creature. It
dropped like an insect sprayed with poison and curled up on the
floor.
Jaina could hear the movement of soft gripping hands and feet as more
of the creatures moved along. She had no idea how many of them there
were, only that the young Jedi Knights were greatly outnumbered.
But they were Jedi, so the odds were fairly even.
One of the unseen creatures struck Jaina from behind. She whirled
about, still holding her lightsaber. With a sizzle, the violet blade
connected with something solid, and one of the creatures let out a
hollow wail. She saw it clearly in the flash of her energy blade, its
lips smooth, its mouth toothless. Patterns on its skin shifted like a
thunderstorm of colors in its pain.
Zekk fired his blaster again, and a second chameleon creature fell,
this time from the ceiling, a great enough height that Jaina could hear
the sharp sound of hollow bones cracking from the impact.
Lowie fought in a mass of muscular, ginger-furred arms. Em Teedee
cried out, "To your left, Master Lowbacca. I sense a distortion! To
your left!" Lowie turned as one of the chameleon creatures leapt.
With his free hand the Wookiee smacked its soft smooth skin and belted
the thing aside.
Suddenly, at the peak of the battle, Jaina saw a stranger charge into
moved like a whip. Her hair was dark, but streaked with lines like
honey, as if she had woven strands of pale blond hair through her thick
mane; a patterned leather band was wrapped around her forehead, holding
her hair in place. Her face was narrow, her almond-shaped eyes large
and dark and sad.
But what most astonished Jaina was that the young woman carried a
blazing lightsaber!
The newcomer uttered a howl of challenge and ran into the fight,
slashing from one side to the other, wielding her acid-yellow blade
like a club. All the young Jedi Knights paused in shock, as did the
chameleon creatures.
The stranger took advantage of the hesitation and attacked. She seemed
able to see the camouflaged creatures, or perhaps in the young woman's
wild frenzy, she struck at everything in sight and happened to get
lucky several times.
Two of the creatures rippled into visibility, clutching their smoking
wounds. They fell with the now-familiar hollow cries of pain before
they died.
"Don't just stand there-keep fighting!" the woman snarled, and the
young Jedi Knights resumed the battle.
But with the appearance of the newcomer, the creatures' fighting
resolve broke. They began to flee, a flicker of barely seen shadows.
"Hey, they're getting the space mines!" Jacen cried. Jaina raced
toward the workbench as the surviving creatures grabbed the last
components and swarmed up toward the air vent near the ceiling.
Jaina watched the dark shaft swallow the shadowy creatures. The young
woman ran ahead with a burst of speed and leapt up at the wall,
sweeping with her lightsaber and striking the last chameleon creature
in the back. It fell with another wordless wail as the rest of its
companions escaped.
Jaina frowned at this last needless slaughter. "You didn't have to do
that. It was running, not attacking us."
"They all need to be dead," the young woman said bitterly.
Zekk and Lowie knelt over one of the fallen bodies, looking at the
fading colors in the skin tone. Jaina knelt beside the one she had
struck, gasping its last breaths.
"Who are you? Who sent you?" she said, but breath only rattled in the
creature's inhuman face, and it died. Then she saw emblazoned in its
&nbs
p; fading multicolored skin a mark, a solid dark circle with designs
around it.
She recognized the symbol. Zekk stood next to her, looked at the
tattoo and then at Jaina. "That symbol reminds me of Black Sun."
Jaina swallowed hard. She knew of the legendary underworld criminal
organization run by vile gangsters and evil crime lords such as Prince
Xizor in the days of the Rebellion. Many other cruel leaders had also
had far-reaching claws that extended into numerous activities,
controlling a large portion of the most insidious crimes in the
galaxy.
"But Black Sun's been quiet for years," she said.
Zekk frowned. "I wonder if they're starting up again. Or if this is
something else."
Jacen turned to their unlikely helper. The wiry young woman stood
there, large eyes wide, pupils dilated, body still trembling. Her arms
jittered as if she were a barely contained mass of energy searching for
another target to fight. Her comfortable, form-fitting shirt left her
arms bare, displaying a tattoo on her right shoulder that looked to
Jacen something like a piranha beetle with a lightning bolt on its
back, but definitely not Black Sun.
"These creatures don't know anything. They're only henchmen, sent here
to remove your evidence. Those space mines were a setup to destroy the
Millennium Falcon."
"Yeah, we guessed that too," Jaina said. "But what I can't figure is