would ever consider him her friend. Loyalty, she had said. Deep
beliefs ....
She looked for these things in her friends.
What exactly did he believe in, though? He believed in his training as
a Jedi, he supposed. And when he finished that training he would go out
on an assignment to defend the New Republic before taking his place as
heir to the Bornaryn fleet.
But what about now? He believed in his family.
How had he acted on that belief?
Raynat could go out to search for his father and his uncle, he mused,
but as only one of many, many searchers. He would probably make no
difference to the final outcome.
He could do nothing to protect his mother that she could not do for
herself.
Bornaryn Trading headquarters on Coruscant did not need him.
So what could he do?
Lusa submerged herself completely in the water and then surfaced again,
letting the rushing stream beat down on her head and shoulders, as if
its flow could cleanse her inside and out.
Raynar smiled. He loved waterfalls. They reminded him of fountains
like the ones used in the Alderaanian ceremony of waters. He and his
mother
and Uncle Tyko shared a love for that ceremony ....
Raynar sat up straight. Uncle Tyko. There was something he could do
for his uncle. With Tyko kidnapped, all the systems on Mechis III would
be running unsupervised. He could go to the droid world and see that
the manufacturing facilities there did not fall into disrepair while his
uncle was absent.
Raynar's excitement grew as the idea caught hold in his mind.
When Lusa cantered up onto the soft riverbank, he jumped down from the
boulder to share his news. Before he could approach, she stretched
luxuriously and then shook herself dry, sending glistening droplets of
water in every direction.
Raynar didn't mind getting wet. He waited to make sure Lusa saw him and
would not get spooked.
She met his eyes tentatively, smiling. This time she did not recoil as
he came closer.
Eyes bright, Raynar told Lusa of his new plan to go to Mechis III.
"It's the least I can do for my family."
She looked surprised, supportive, and--Raynar hoped he sensed it
correctly--slightly disappointed.
"Will you be going alone?" she asked. "Do you have your own ship?"
The question brought Raynar up short. He had not thought of how he
would actually get to the droid world. "Well, if I have to find my way
there
alone, I will," he said firmly. He was surprised as he spoke the next
words and realized they were true: "But I have some friends--I think
they'll volunteer to go with me."
And he was right.
AFTER HIS DISCUSSION with Boba Fett, Zekk plunged into the search for
Bornan Thul's brother.
According to Jaina's recent hololetter, Tyko had been kidnapped by the
assassin droid IG-88 during a battle in the lost city on Kuar.
Jaina sent Zekk news-filled messages to reassure him of her friendship.
Someday he intended to respond, when he felt confident enough in his new
life that he could rise above the dark things he had done to her and her
friends when he was part of the Shadow Academy.
Zekk missed Jaina more than he could admit--even to himself--but he
couldn't face her until he redefined who he was. First, he had to make
his name as a bounty hunter. At the moment, an important part of his
quest was to find Tyko Thul.
By tapping into galactic information databases, Zekk compiled a dossier
of background information
on Raynar's uncle. After the destruction of Alder-aan, Boman and Aryn
merchant fleet. Tyko, on the other hand, had invested his fortune in
rebuilding the droid manufacturing facilities on Mechis III.
Next Zekk reviewed Jaina's hololetters and quickly summed up the
details. When his brother became a fugitive, Tyko had retreated briefly
to the safety of the Bornaryn fleet, and then joined Jaina, Jacen, and
their friends to search for clues on Kuar.
In the ruins, the group ran afoul of IG-88 and his squad of assassin
droids, and the other Thul had been abducted during the battle.
Zekk found it astonishing that IG-88 had so far made no ransom demands.
The assassin droid seemed to be waiting for Bornan Thul to reappear from
hiding and ask for his brother's release. But Zekk alone knew that the
wanted man had other plans. Zekk would have to find Tyko himself.
He searched through the Lightning Rod's navigational files until he
found a minor notation on the ancient world of Kuar--enough to help him
plan his route. Kuar was a faint clue at best, but at the moment he had
no better leads. The ship launched into hyperspace.
All civilization on the planet had turned to dust, leaving only skeletal
cities poking out of craters and
cliffsides. Archaeological evidence from long-ago expeditions suggested
that this place had once served as a gladiatorial training ground for
the fearsome Mandalorian warriors. Now, only mined cities remained,
like scars gradually fading with time.
It didn't take his sensors long to locate residual traces of the young
Jedi Knights' encampment and the site of their fateful battle.
At least now he had a place to start.
He set the Lightning Rod down on the crater rim where Jacen and Jaina,
Tenel Ka, and Lowie had begun exploring the rains. Standing beside his
ship, which ticked and hissed and clanked as it settled on its landing
pads, he stared into the immense bowl-shaped crater. These ruins were
older than even the Mandalorian conquests. Towering skyscrapers had
fallen apart, leaving only girder superstructures that protruded from
the floor of the crater and rose nearly to its rim.
The crater's sheer walls were riddled with tunnels and catacombs, like
worm-infested wood. He let his imagination wander. On the balcony
seats below, spectators had once watched life-and-death straggles inside
the arena.
Zekk surveyed the crater, pondering his next step.
In order to search for any clues, he would need to find the exact site
of the battle with the combat arachnids and the assassin droids.
He armed himself with two blasters, knowing that the catacombs might
still be swarming with the ferocious spider-monsters. Zekk wanted to
make his inspection and get out before he attracted the attention of the
arachnids.
Keeping his weapons handy and his Jedi senses alert, Zekk followed
ramps, crumbling stairs, and interlocked balconies down the crater wall.
When he discovered scuffed footprints in the dust where his friends had
walked, he did his best to retrace their steps. Perhaps in the
aftermath of battle, some clue had been left unnoticed by one of IG-88's
droid henchmen.
It was a slim chance, though, and he didn't hold out much hope.
Zekk followed the trail until he came upon recent blaster scars.
Zekk reconstructed the details of the battle from what he saw.
and his cohorts had pulverized part of the crater wall to get into the
catacombs. Under attack, Jacen and Jaina had fled downward, hauling
Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Tyko Thul after them. They had rushed into the
dark passageways, hoping to escape. But the assassin droids had found
them anyway--and so had the combat arachnids.
Zekk sniffed the metallic tang in the air, the mustiness, the sharp odor
of dust and long-dried blood. Yes, this was the place.
He listened intently for the tapping of jagged
feet on stone, large bodies stirring, mandibles clacking . . .
but the tunnels were filled with only the sifting of dust, the whispers
of shadows.
He switched on a glowrod, keeping the light down low, Then he advanced
deeper inside.
Within the chamber he saw numerous dark tunnels in the cliffside,
probably the dank lairs of surviving combat arachnids. Zekk tried to
keep his light from dancing inside the protective darkness of those
passages. He was not afraid to fight, but he didn't want to.
He thought he heard a sound. Pausing in midstep, he waited to hear it
repeated. A trickle of sweat crept down his back. Silence, punctuated
by his own pounding heartbeat and the roar of his own breathing. He
continued his inspection, trying to maintain his concentration. He
didn't want to miss a thing.
On the ceiling and walls of the grotto Zekk saw pitted impact points
where energy bolts had struck.
The floor itself was' stained, discolored, tacky with dried ichor from
the slaughtered creatures.
Like discarded garbage, the torn and blasted remains of slain assassin
droids were scattered everywhere. Durasteel arms, torsos, central
processors, built-in weapons systems, and metallic skull-heads lay where
they had fallen. Either the combat arachnids had no interest in the
spare parts, or they had intentionally left the fallen enemies to show
their scorn, "Must have been a titanic battle," Zekk muttered.
He picked up the twisted remnant of a tubular durasteel torso from one
of the powerful assassin droids. Such merciless killing machines were
illegal and kept under tight security even during Imperial days.
He found it incredible to discover so many here, in one place.
Zekk reached in, fiddled with the wreckage, and finally pulled out the
central processing unit from the metal body core. He studied the serial
number on the CPU, frowning deeply.
This was not at all what he had expected.
Zekk had assumed that IG-88, an old-model semi-sentient assassin droid,
had gathered a cadre of discontinued machines that were still deadly,
still functional. In theory, at least, assassin droids had not been
constructed for decades--not since the fall of the Empire.
But this chip was new. The date-coded serial number and designators
suggested t.hat its programming was less than two months old. This
assassin droid had been manufactured recently!
Zekk held up the chip, shining his glowrod onto its surface again to
double-check its markings.
Something was terribly wrong here. This was a mystery he had not
anticipated.
He heard a stirring noise, clear and definite this
time: the cautiously approaching footsteps of a creature that had far
too many legs.
Zekk stood up straight, gripping a blaster in one hand and his glowrod
in the other. He dimmed the light even further when he heard clacking
noises and skittering footsteps from other catacombs, coming closer,
getting louder. The combat arachnids were alerted to his presence. They
were nearby . . .
and he had no doubt they intended to deal with another intruder swiftly
and permanently.
Grabbing the CPU chip that held the information he needed--as well as
another, deeper puzzle--he sprinted back out to the balconies and into
the hazy sunlight of Kuar. He didn't look behind him. His legs were
strong and fit and carried him at full speed back to his ship.
The combat arachnids could give chase if they wanted, but he sensed that
they would be cautious, for a short time, at least--and he would get to
safety first. He had left the Lightning Rod prepped for a fast getaway.
Sliding into the pilot's seat, Zekk activated the repulsorlifts and
raised his ship off the dusty rim of the crater, taking time to fasten
his crash restraints only after he had reached the air. Then he cruised
away at a leisurely pace to give himself time to Zekk held the chip in
his hand, contemplating the inexplicably recent serial number.
He ran a data check on the number using the Lightning Rod's computers.
The results verified his suspicions but raised many more questions than
were answered.
The assassin droids that had accompanied IG-88
to kidnap Tyko Thul had been manufactured only a few weeks ago--on
Mechis III.
In Tyko Thul's own droid factory.
As he reached the blackness of space, Zekk stared out at the cascade of
stars . . . and decided that he had no choice but to follow the
mystery where it led him. He was a bounty hunter, and he had an
assignment to complete. He would go to Mechis III.
But first, he had one stop to make.
MECHIS IH WAS a black world, its surface blanketed with slag and
industrial debris, its continents covered with factories, processing
centers, and automated assembly lines. It had originally been a
lifeless planet with a breathable atmosphere, but ugly and barren--a
place where huge factories could be set up without local inhabitants
complaining about environmental damage. Better here, everyone agreed,
than on some world worth saving.
Mechis iiI served its purpose, as evidenced by the proliferation of
droids throughout the galaxy.
Other planets, such as Telti, produced high-quality droids as well, but
for generations this had been the center of the industry.
During the last days of the Empire, though, Mechis III had undergone a
turbulent upheaval, which was largely undocumented. The supervisors of
the automated assembly lines had been killed, but
the mechanized, self-sufficient systems had continued regular
production, unsupervised, for some time. In fact, several years had
passed before anyone even noticed that the human attendants were no
longer alive!
In the meantime, the systems had fallen into disarray.
Programming glitches and minor breakdowns went unrepaired and gradually
compounded themselves into worse disasters.
Thus, by the time Raynat's uncle took on the immense project of
restoring Mechis III's former glory, entire sections of the factory had
been blackened, burnt out, or shut down from lack of power.
Much of the machinery lay in disrepair or total ruin.
But Tyko Thul had promised to bring the place to peak production levels
and had succeeded admirably--at least until he was kidnapped by an
assassin droid.
Now Raynar vowed he would not let all of his uncle's work go to waste
....
As the Rock Dragon approached Mechis III, Jaina looked out the front
windowports at th
e landscape far below. The lights of a thousand
factories glittered like bright embroidery across the slag-covered
surface. Beside her, Raynat sat in Lowbacca's accustomed copilot's
seat, though the young man did not venture to help with the actual
flying. Jaina did it all with only Em Teedee's assistance--which made
her miss Lowie even more.
Jacen and Tenel Ka sat beside each other in the back, talking quietly.
"Say," Jacen said, "what does an Imperial Star Destroyer wear to a
formal occasion?"
"Why would Imperial Star Destroyers wear anything?"
Tenel Ka asked. The warrior girl from Dathomir seemed to enjoy
frustrating him, and Jacen never failed to rise to the challenge.
"Still don't quite have the hang of these jokes, do you?" he said in
exasperation. "Come on, you know that's not the fight response."
"Very well," Tenel Ka said with the barest smile, "what does an Imperial
Star Destroyer wear to a
formal occasion?"
"A bow TIE!"
Jaina groaned. "That one's bad even for you, Jacen. I think we may
have to strand you here on Mechis III."