in the Force when Alderaan was destroyed."
"I still feel a disturbance," Tenel Ka said.
"Like echoes."
Jaina scanned the debris with the ship's sensors. Some of the
meteoroids were composed of rock, others of metals from different
portions of the planet-the crust, the mantle, the core.
Lowie barked a comment, and Em Tbedee translated. "Master Lowbacca
wishes to know what, exactly, he should be searching for."
"Something ... special," Jaina answered.
Jacen added, "But we don't know what it is yet." The asteroids grew
denser around them.
Lowie flicked his yellow gaze down to the labyrinth of orbital paths
diagrammed on the screen. Jaina saw the lines tightening up, the paths
becoming more congested.
"'Erne for some fancy flying, Lowie," she said, then smiled back over
her shoulder at Tenel Ka. "Let's see what the Rock Dragon has to show
for itself."
'Oh, my," Em Teedee said.
The Hapan passenger cruiser skimmed between two of the larger asteroids
and circled back, curving below the plane of the debris cluster and then
arrowing back fl=ugh again. While simultaneously flying, watching out
for obstacles, and studying the navigational diagram, Jaina continued to
glance at the sensors, searching for exactly the right place to go. She
felt she would know the place by instinct, as soon as she laid eyes upon
it.
When she let her attention flicker for just a moment, Lowie bellowed in
surprise and wrenched the copilot controls, spinning the Rock Dragon in
a backward loop to avoid a jagged splinter of stone. He arced back in a
U-turn and returned the way they had come. Their ship plunged once more
through the rubble field.
"Hey, Jaina, are you sure you know where you're going.?" Jacen said.
@wie growled something reassuring, then performed another U-turn to head
back through the rocks.
"This is kind of fun," Jaina said, accelerating as she circled around
one of the larger chunks so that they could see the cratered landscape
below them.
"I am glad you approve of our Hapan technology, Captain," Tenel Ka said.
"My grandmother assured me you would approve of the special
modifications she ordered to this ship." "I'm not sure I understand all
the features of the engines and their subsystems yet," Jaina answered,
'but that leaves more for me to tinker with. A pilot's duty, you know.
Thanks for @g me the chance to fly this, Tenel Ka."
Jacen kept peering out the side winaow, shaking his head. 'It's amazing
to think this was once a whole planet. . . . Alder
SHARDS OF ALDERAAN ill
aan. I heard that some smugglers or pirates had been using this rubble
as a relay station or a hideout, just like the asteroid field around
Hoth."
Tenel Ka grunted. 'There will always be such stories. Some are true,
others are not.
I doubt we will find pirates here."
Jaina let Lowie handle the flying while she studied the sensors again,
hoping to spot that special something she was looking for. The Hapan
ship had plenty of unusual diagnostic devices; it seemed as if Tenel
Ka's grandmother had installed every imaginable system. But Jaina used
only the diagnostics with which she was most familiar, analyzing rocks,
looking for something out of the ordinary.
A special gift for her mother.
When the bizarre asteroid showed up on her screens, Jaina knew instantly
that she had found their target.
"Lowie, here's our new course," she said, highlighting one of the blips
among the green lines on the navigational projection panel.
The large asteroid reflected light from the Alderaan system's distant
metallic sheen. The readings indicated that this asteroid % almost pure
metal, with a higher concentration of precious elements than any other
in the asteroid field.
They had discovered a lump from the true core of Alderaan, the heart of
her mother's world. The other young Jedi Knights leaned forward to see
as the Rock Dragon approached the asteroid.
'That's the one," Jaina said.
-----------------AS HE SCANNED the surface of Ennth, Zekk was surprised
to find scattered settlements in the same locations where previous
cities had been destroyed eight years before.
Zekk adjusted the Lightning Rod's course and guided it into the stream
of shuttle traffic toward the main settlement, where his parents had
lived, where they had made their dreams. . . . He remembered that
the colonists optimistically renamed the villages each timeNew Hopetown,
Newer Hopetown, and Newest Hopetown. He wondered what they would do
once they ran out of qualifiers.
Powering up the ship's comm system, Zekk transmitted a message to the
central control barracks, identifying himself. He briefly told his
story, that he was a prodigal son from Ennth who had now returned.
The communications controller greeted him with surprise, but her voice
held the breathless urgency of someone burdened with too many
responsibilities. She put on another man, an operations commander named
Rastur, who was in charge of the evacuation activities. Zekk thought he
remembered the man: during the previous disaster, a brave young soldier
named Rastur had been decorated for his heroic feats.
He had apparently risen in importance and now had the primary
responsibility for preserving the persistent colonists of Ennth.
As he brought the Lightning Rod down into the belt of stormclouds, Zekk
hoped the ship wouldn't prove to be aptly named.
He passed through knotted black thunderheads, roiling weather systems
churned up by the oncoming moon's tidal chaos.
Below, the landscape of Ennth lay black and jumbled. Hardened lava rock
stood out in cracked scabs. The broken outcroppings looked fresh and
solid, laid down in the eruptions of only eight years ago.
Zekk saw green patches in the hardened rocky landscape, small jewels of
farmland fertilized and tilled. To his astonishment, workers still
frantically combed the fields to finish one last harvest before they had
to depart from their doomed world. Those food supplies would have to
last the people on the refugee stations until the Ennth colonists could
reestablish their settlements on a piistine landscape in another year.
Fighting against the turbulent wind, Zekk's ship approached the remains
of a bustling spaceport, a stripped-down landing area surrounded by
dismantled buildings and partially torn down warehouses.
Zekk brought the Lightning Rod in as several cargo ships, heavily loaded
with people and supplies, lumbered into the air.
Barely aerodynamic, the ships wobbled as they gained altitude. Other
ships came in and circled, scouting for any available landing space.
He secured the ship, opened the hatch, then bounded down the ramp, ready
to help. @oops and rescue workers scurried about-volunteers, colonists,
everyone doing their part. The air, smelling of smoke and sulfur, was
heavy with humidity and ozone
from the stormclouds overhead.
In the city square Zekk saw huge statues, colorful paintings along the
sides of lava-brick walls, vibrant artistic expressions everywhere he
turned-all being left behind. Each masterwork of sculpture and
illustration had been carved or painted in the past eight years as an
expression of thanksgiving by the colonists when they had rebuilt their
demolished town.
As he stood outside the Lightning Rod, a young woman rushed over to meet
him.
She was trim, in her early twenties, wearing a comfortable utility suit,
her hair dark brown and cropped close to her head. Her eyes, a deep
sepia, squinted with weariness and strain.
"Are you Zekk?" she said, gesturing for him to accompany her back to the
headquarters building. She began walking immediately without waiting
for Zekk, as if she had no time at all for light conversation.
She called over her shoulder. 'Welcome to Another Hopetown. I'm
Shinnan. I remember your parents from when I was thirteen years old,
during the last evacuation. You were just a boy then . . . seven?"
'Almost nine," Zekk corrected. 'I think I remember you, too. You were
kind of a bossy girl telling the other kids what to do." She smiled.
"Yes, and now I'm a bossy woman telling grown-ups what to do. I hope
you've come here to help. We could certainly use an extra hand during
the last stages of the evacuation."
Zekk looked up into the darkening clouds.
He saw crisscrossed lines of ship exhausts like white spiderwebs
highlighted by flashes of hghtning. "I came home," he said. "I've done
a lot of things in my life, but now I've returned to Ennth. I'll gladly
lend a hand."
He hurried to keep up with Shinnan's rapid steps. Around him he saw the
foundations of sheared-off buildings and tentcovered supply stacks
lashed down and waiting to be picked up by cargo ships. The Ennth
colonists continued to work steadily without rest, managing to look
frenzied and organized at the same time.
On the way to the main command center, they passed abandoned buildings;
some of the roofs had collapsed, windows broken.
Tremors and aftershocks had slammed through Ennth for the past year or
so, yet the colonists had waited until the last minute to pack up.
Partly through the Force and partly through his own nerve endings, Zekk
felt the ground trembling beneath his feet, as if he stood on a bomb
just waiting to explode.
The only structures still inhabited seemed to be small stone dwellings
near the command center-probably the quarters for Shinnan and Rastur and
the other evacuation workers who had vowed to stay until the bitter end
. . . just as his own parents had tragically done, eight years
before.
The ground suddenly shook, as if a squirming krayt dragon lay just under
the surface. Zekk stumbled, but Shinnan did not even pause in her step.
The tremors ceased in only a few seconds. Shinnan made no comment at
all as she took him inside the command center.
A lean, hard-looking man stepped up to them. His eyes were old beyond
his years, with stress lines etched into his face. He carried a deep
sorrow within him. "Rastur, this is Zekk-returned to us after these
many years." Shinnan paused, seeing the dead look on Rastur's face.
"What's wrong, my love?" She slid her arms beneath his and held him
tightly.
"I received word from our reconnaissance flyers," Rastur said. 'Newest
Coast 'fbwn has just been destroyed." Shinnan gasped, then composed
herself.
"What happened?"
"A tidal wave," he said, "undersea seismic activities. We saw it
coming, but had only a few minutes' warning. The wave came in a
thousand meters high and wiped out the entire settlement." He drew in a
deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Luckily, we had
already stepped up evacuation and salvage procedures. We got eighty
percent of the supplies to safety in orbit. Most of the settlers had
taken refuge, except for a hundred or so who remained behind for a last
run. We also lost two supply ships." Zekk listened with growing horror,
but didn't say anything. Shinnan spoke up.
"Any chance for rescue operations?"
"There were no survivors,' Rastur said firmly, "not even any flotsam and
jetsam to salvage. . . ." His voice hitched before he brought it back
under control. "In fact, there's not even much of a coast left where
the wave hit."
Shinnan hugged the man briefly. "We knew to expect casualties, Rastur,"
she said. "We'll have a year to mourn once we're all off planet and
waiting for the land to settle down again. For now, we've got work to
do."
Finally Rastur became aware of Zekk, his eyes lighting up with a glimmer
of welcome. "We're glad you've come home, Zekk-now, more than ever, we
could use your help. Your people need you."
For the next few days, Zekk worked harder than he ever had in his life,
filling the Lightning Rod's cargo holds to capacity and flying up to the
refugee stations in orbit. He got to know some of the supply runners as
well as several of the colonists.
Many claimed to remember him as a child; others didn't, but welcomed him
anyway.
Despite the impending disaster and devastation, everyone on Ennth seemed
willing to pull together as a team for a common goal, salvaging what
they could from their homes and their lives, fleeing to safety before
the groundquakes and volcanoes and tidal waves destroyed everything.
Many people died in the rush, some through carelessness, others through
accidents. A few older colonists even dropped from sheer exhaustion,
left behind to be buried by the violent upheaval of their adopted world.
In the frantic command center, Rastur never seemed to sleep, directing
hundreds of shuttle flights, deciding which shipments had to go first,
which colonists would be stationed on which refugee station. Shinnan
did her best to assist him, taking care of the people, listening to
complaints and suggestions . . . somehow managing to hold it all
together.
One day later that week, lightning struck across the landscape like
turbolaser bolts, blasting sand and lava rock. The winds picked up,
making it dffficult for the last cargo ships to take off safely. With
his long dark hair tied in a ponytail to keep it out of the way, Zekk
remained behind to dismantle the remaining computers from the command
center, haphazardly packing them into the last few battered crates, then
hauling all nonessential components away.
Rastur turned from his central post, his expression even grimmer than
his usual perpetual frown. "We've just lost Heartland Settlement to
lava," he said. 'A chain of volcanoes ripped it to pieces and
incinerated the remaining structures. Luckily the last flights had
already taken off. No casualties. Minimal loss of equipment." The
other workers in the command center set up a ragged cheer. "We're all
finished here at Another Hopetown, Rastur," Shinnan said. "All that
remains is to pack up our own quarters
and possessions."
"All right, I'm glad we left that until last.
Everything else is taken care of, so I'll be able to sleep better at
night,' he said, "once we get off the surface and up to the refugee
stations."
Shinnan stepped to the doorway of the command center. Zekk followed
her, ready to offer his help, though his arms and legs felt ready to
drop off. Utterly exhausted, he still felt exhilarated by how much they
had accomplished despite seemingly impossible odds. Though they had
suffered casualties, Ennth had been successfully evacuated.
Then the groundquake struck.
Not just a tremor like those he had experienced hundreds of times in the
last few days-the seismic shock felt as if a Super Star Destroyer had
crashed down on the planet, slamming into the world's crust like a giant
mallet. The remaining computer stands inside the command center fell
over. Other buildings surrounding the near-deserted square swayed and
rocked.
One of the tall statues toppled and smashed on the cobblestones.
While Zekk held the door frame and fought for balance, Shinnan sprinted
across the open square. Bobbing and weaving, she headed directly toward
the low stone structures that had served as living quarters for the
evacuation personnel.
"Shinnan, no!" Zekk cried. He whirled to look at Rastur. "Where is she