gripped the arms of the seat tightly.
"I think I'm going to be sick," she said in a small voice.
Tionne's voice was grim.
"Hang on, everyone, it's going to get even rougher before we land."
Although it was daytime, the sky grew darker around them as the ship
plunged into a cluster of roiling storm clouds. The ship shuddered again,
and lightning crashed outside the viewports.
"This would be a fine opportunity to practice your Jedi relaxation
exercises, my young friends," Ikrit pointed out. The small Jedi Master
sounded completely calm. Anakin was thankful for the reminder as high winds
continued to jostle the ship. He began to feel better almost instantly.
"You all right?" he asked Tahiri.
She nodded.
"Better."
Anakin was glad to see that Uldir seemed to have relaxed as well. His
face was no longer deathly pale, though he merely grunted when Anakin asked
how he felt.
"Not much longer now," Tionne said.
The Lore Seeker jerked sideways, and she steadied it.
"It's only about fifty more kilometers to the landing area." Ikrit
said, "I wish to help, if you would not object. I cannot control the
weather, but if you will show me our path, I can use the Force to steady
your ship."
"Thank you, Master Ikrit. I would appreciate your assistance," Tionne
said in a relieved voice. In less than a minute she had shown him the
coordinates to Bast Castle and their flight path.
Then Ikrit closed his blue-green eyes and stretched one paw toward the
front viewport in the direction of their flight. Instantly the Lore
Seeker's shuddering quieted. Anakin could still feel some vibration when
winds struck the ship or lightning flashed close by, but the tiny Jedi
Master held the ship steady while Tionne piloted the Lore Seeker in a
smooth descent to the landing area. As the craft folded its coppery wings
and touched down with a gentle thump, Anakin, Tahiri, Tionne, and Uldir
burst into cheers and applause.
"All right, I admit it," Uldir said. "I'm impressed."
Artoo-Detoo twittered and bleeped enthusiastically.
"Good work, everyone," Tionne said. "And a special thanks to both of
my copilots."
"Well, let's get out and take a look at Darth Vader's fortress,"
Tahiri said.
Anakin suddenly had a strange feeling at the pit of his stomach again.
While safe on Yavin 4, he had been very curious to see the fortress his
grandfather had built. But now that he was here, he wasn't so sure....
The area where they had landed was rocky and bare except for a few
stunted trees, whose leafless branches stretched toward the cloudy sky.
Anakin turned in a slow circle to look around. Dark rocky spires stretched
up hundreds of meters to disappear into the mist and low clouds. But they
saw no sign of any buildings.
"Where is the castle?" he said at last. Tionne sighed. "According to
Master Skywalker, it's up there." She pointed to one of the rocky peaks.
Tahiri, Anakin, and Uldir exchanged surprised glances. Distant lightning
flickered across the shadowy landscape.
"Don't worry," Tionne said, "the information broker told me how to get
to the top."
"Then why didn't we just fly up there?" Uldir asked.
"Master Skywalker warned me that the wind and storms might make it
difficult for me to pilot the Lore Seeker safely onto the landing platform
in front of Bast Castle. Even some modern ships have trouble making that
landing."
"Did Uncle Luke tell you anything about the fortress itself?" Anakin
asked.
"I don't know much about it."
"Well, I found out as much as I could before we left. Apparently Vader
built Bast Castle as one of his private strongholds; he was a powerful man.
brought a copy of Palpatine's body here-a clone. This second Emperor was
defeated too. Since then, the fortress has been abandoned, as far as we
know."
A cold rain began to drizzle down on the gathered companions. And soon
the wind picked up again, chilling them all.
"I still don't get it," Uldir said to Anakin. "Why would your
grandfather choose to build in such a desolate place?"
Anakin's teeth were beginning to chatter.
"Guess he didn't want many visitors."
Despite the freezing rain and her bare feet, Tahiri had clambered to
the top of a rock to get a better view of their surroundings. Her feet
looked blue from the cold and Anakin wondered if she really was more
comfortable without boots on.
"Um, it looks like they still get at least some visitors," Tahiri
said.
"What do you mean?" Anakin asked, climbing up beside her.
She pointed to a spot a hundred meters away, where a battered old
cargo shuttle was half hidden in the shadow of a rocky outcropping.
Lightning flashed, brightening the area around the small ship for a moment.
"Looks empty," Anakin said.
Tahiri nodded.
"I wonder if it's been there very long."
The chilly rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun, but the wind
still howled around them.
"I think we'd better get up to Bast Castle as soon as the weather
improves," Tionne said. "I just hope we're not too late to find what we
came for."
"Look," Tahiri gasped, and pointed upward.
The wind that had been making them all shiver had also broken up the
clouds and pushed them aside. Towering above them, on a grim stony peak,
sat Bast Castle. The fortress was domed and heavily armored, with a craggy
spike at the center. Dark and brooding, it looked like a deadly battleship
hovering in the sky just above the tip of sharp rock that stabbed upward.
Lightning flashed around it like blaster fire. Thunder rumbled.
"It's hard to imagine," Tahiri said, "that anyone ever called this
place home."
It was a dark and stormy day. Tahiri shivered as she looked out the
Lore Seeker's viewport at the rain and gusty winds that swept Vjun's bleak
landscape. She yanked at a strand of her damp blonde hair. Now that they
had all changed into dry clothes and eaten a warm meal, Tahiri was ready to
face the climb up to the fortress.
But the weather, if anything, had gotten worse. It was raining again-
much harder this time - and her feet refused to get warm.
"Do you think it will let up?" Anakin asked.
"From what Master Skywalker told me, the weather on this planet is
never very pleasant," Tionne said.
"I guess it's a good thing we brought thermal liners to wear under our
jumpsuits then," Anakin said. "And our rain gear too."
"How long are we going to wait?" Uldir asked impatiently. "We don't
know how long this rain will last. It could be days."
Tionne sighed.
"That's true. Let's gather all of our equipment together and get our
rain gear ready. We'll wait another hour. If it hasn't let up by then,
we'll start anyway."
Tahiri looked down at her bare feet. They were still cold, and when
she wriggled her toes she coul
d hardly feel them. But she detested shoes,
and her voice was miserable as she told Tionne,
"I hate to say it, but I think I'll have to wear those soft boots you
had made for me. I hope I'll only need them for the climb. Once we get to
the castle I may take them off again, of course."
The Jedi teacher's face was solemn as she nodded at Tahiri and said,
"Of course."
As it was, the rain her face. Her nose was starting to drip, and the
chilly gusts stung her eyes and made her cheeks and ears numb.
"The information broker on Borgo Prime said there was a stairway
around the back of the rock," Tionne said. "Ah, here we are."
Now that they were getting close, Anakin looked upward.
"Will this lead us to the landing pad?" he asked.
Tionne inspected the stairway etched into the side of the rock
pinnacle.
"Not exactly. This takes us to the back of Bast Castle. The last time
Master Skywalker was here, there were automatic lasers firing on anything
that moved in front of the fortress. He knew about this rear stairway and
suggested it might be safer."
"He probably just wanted us to be extra careful," Anakin said. "The
stairs look pretty steep, Artoo," he added. "Can you make it?"
Artoo-Detoo warbled uncertainly.
"If he cannot, I will use the Force to help him over the rough parts,"
Ikrit said Tahiri eyed the stairs warily. She spotted several broken steps
with jagged edges.
"Glad I'm wearing my boots after all," she muttered.
"What about you, Uldir?" Tionne asked. "Are you ready for the climb?"
The teenager shrugged and grinned.
"Hey, this kind of stuff is why I wanted to be a Jedi Knight. I came
for adventure--and I'm ready for anything."
Anakin wasn't really surprised when it started raining again only a
few minutes after they began their climb. Their protective clothing kept
them dry for the most part. What surprised him was the cold. The rain was
freezing. The stairs to the fortress led up in a spiral that began outside,
tunneled into the rock, and then wound back to the outside again as the
stairs led higher. In and out, in and out. The icy rain made the stone
steps slippery, and Anakin was glad each time the stairway tunneled back
into the rock. Even though they stopped several times to rest away from the
wind and rain, Anakin found himself growing tired.
"How-how much-farther-do you-think - it is?" Tahiri asked, collapsing
beside Anakin during one of their rest breaks. In spite of her rain hood,
bedraggled clumps of wet, hair were plastered against her forehead and
cheeks. Anakin had no idea how far they had come, and he was too out of
breath even to attempt an answer. He merely shook his head.
"I think we are about halfway," Tionne said. A healthy pink flush ran
along the instructor's high cheekbones. She didn't seem to be breathing
hard at all.
Uldir moved to the closest opening in the stairway, leaned out, and
looked up to the top of the rock spire.
"She's right," he said. "We've got a long ways to go yet."
Tahiri groaned. "These stairs are giving me a headache."
Anakin closed his eyes and tried to convince himself that he felt much
better after his brief rest.
"Among my people on the planet Kushibah," Ikrit said, "we have a
proverb: The path to success is seldom short." Uldir pulled his head back
inside and crouched next to Anakin and Tahiri.
"Yeah? I'll bet your people always go the long way around instead of
taking shortcuts when they see them."
The teenager wiped a hand across his cheek and came away with a
fingerful of slush. He grinned.
"I thought the rain outside felt awfully cold." He held out his finger
to show Anakin. "Sleet. The rain has turned to sleet."
This time it was Anakin's turn to groan. He was already tired of being
cold and damp.
Tionne's silvery brows drew together in a frown.
"That means we'll all have to take extra care on the slippery steps
outside," she said.
"Especially Artoo." Anakin pushed himself back to his feet and reached
out a hand to help Tahiri up as well.
"The sooner we get up to the castle the sooner we can get warm and
dry," he said. "Ikrit and I will follow Artoo to make sure he doesn't slip.
"
Artoo-Detoo whistled a halfhearted agreement and they all set off
again.
It was late in the day when the companions finally stood on a broad
ledge at the rear entrance to Bast Castle, all somewhat the worse for wear.
Anakin had a bruised knee and chin from having slipped and fallen heavily
on the stairs. At least twice, Artoo-Detoo had teetered precariously at the
edge of the steps before Ikrit had managed to use the Force to catch and
lift him to safety. Tahiri had a scrape on one cheek from stumbling and
falling against the rock wall. And so it had gone for all of them. Cold,
bone-weary, and aching from their climb, they wanted nothing more than to
get out of the wind and rain for a while. Tionne carefully raised one hand
and waved it in front of the motion sensors beside the blast panel on the
fortress door.
"No laser blasts," she said. "That's a good sign. Maybe Imperials
turned the defenses off when they left. Artoo, we'll need you to open the
cyberlock on this door."
Buzzing and twittering, Artoo-Detoo rolled forward and put one of his
probes into the computer-operated lock. The impressive double doors were
five meters tall and almost as wide.
While waiting for the little droid to open the doors, Anakin and
Tahiri backed up to get a better look at the fortress now that they were
close enough to see it. Bast Castle looked to Anakin like an enormous
armor-plated helmet with a large spiky tower rising from its center. Dark
metallic blast shielding covered every wall and window. Artoo-Detoo
whistled in surprise and prodded the huge doors. They swung inward on
noiseless hinges.
"Wow, that was fast," Tahiri said.
"Yeah, good work, Artoo," Anakin said.
Together, the two companions moved forward to get their first glimpse
of the inside. Neither of them went in, but Anakin leaned through the broad
doorway and looked around. What he saw made him catch his breath. Ahead, in
a room as big as the Grand Audience Chamber at the Jedi academy, lay the
enormous black-robed figure of Darth Vader. It took Anakin a moment to
realize that the plasteel helmet and black flowing cape were really part of
a statue - a larger-than-life statue of Darth Vader that had been toppled
to the floor, discarded like a piece of old junk.
Uldir shouldered his way into the entrance beside Anakin and pushed
the gigantic portal open all the way.
"It's cold out here. Why don't we go inside where it's warm and dry?"
Without warning, bright steaks of laser fire crisscrossed the
courtyard.
"Stay back," Ikrit rasped.
"Everyone down," Tionne yelled. Anakin, Tahiri, and Uldir hit the
floor.
Another bright streak burned across the air in front of Anakin.
"Blaster bol
ts!" Uldir yelped in his ear.
"Yeah, that's exactly what my brother Jacen always says," Anakin
muttered. "Only this time they're lasers, not blasters."
"I think we set off some sort of intruder alarm," Tahiri said.
Uldir snorted. "You figured that out all by yourself, did you? Of
course we set off an alarm - and now someone's shooting at us!"
"Not someone," Anakin corrected. "Something."
Uldir grunted.
"Okay, fine. But whatever it is will probably come out here any minute
and kill us."
"No," Ikrit said immediately. "I sense no life - forms, no
intelligence in that room."
"Whatever it is, it isn't alive," Tionne agreed. "I can feel that."
"I think it's an automatic system," Anakin said. "Tahiri was right
when she said we triggered something. It looks like some sort of intruder
defense. It must be automatic. Look how regular the pattern is: two shots
every second, first from the front left and right, and then from the rear