Soon, he thought, the precious egg would hatch, and he would have an unusual pet.
For now, though, he walked through the underbrush in search of various colors of the polished button beetles. He had discovered a nearly intact nest under some broken rocks blasted from the Great Temple during the recent Shadow Academy attack, and he wanted to complete his collection of specimens.
Instead, as he parted a stand of tall ferns and stepped into a clearing, Jacen saw another young Jedi trainee, Raynar, sitting alone on a rock. He found this quite unusual, since the young man usually avoided the jungles, preferring to remain inside more “civilized” areas. Raynar’s brightly colored robes were as multihued and iridescent as an entire swarm of button beetles. He sat with his hands on his robed knees.
Jacen grinned and waved. he’d been working harder at being friendly to Raynar since the boy’s family problems had begun.
“Hi, Raynar. What are you doing?”
Raynar turned, startled by Jacen’s arrival. “Nothing.”
Jacen laughed. “There’s usually a lot more than nothing going on, when someone says ‘nothing.’”
“All right,” Raynar said with a sigh. “I was meditating … using the Force to reach out with my mind. I thought maybe I could find out something about where my father went.”
“Still no word, then?” Jacen asked.
Sadly, the blond-haired boy shook his head and stared down at his hands. Though New Republic Security Forces and the bounty hunter Boba Fett—and who knew how many others—were searching the galaxy for him, Bornan Thul had not been found.
Jacen felt uncomfortable when someone else was in trouble or dejected and there was. nothing he could do about it. Although he often resorted to telling jokes, he knew this was probably not a good time to try that. “I wish there was something we could do to help,” he said.
“If I can think of something, I’ll definitely ask you, then,” Raynar answered, looking slightly relieved, though not too hopeful.
He forced a smile. A small one … but it was a smile nevertheless.
When Jacen and Raynar returned together to the Great Temple, the workers had just finished restoring part of the hangar bay that had collapsed during the Imperial attack. New Republic engineers had pitched in with the large-scale work, while military ships hovered in orbit over the jungle moon to protect against any further attacks from space.
Arms crossed over his chest, Luke Skywalker leaned against the Rock Dragon and watched Jacen and Raynar as they approached.
Jaina and Lowbacca sat beside the repaired passenger shuttle.
Jacen waved. “Hi, Uncle Luke.”
“I’ve got a message from Raynar’s mother,” Luke said.
The boy from Alderaan instantly perked up and hurried over. “What is it?” Raynar asked. “Is there news?”
“Not exactly,” Luke said. “But she would like me to escort you to her fleet so you can be together during the search for your father. She thinks it’s best for your. personal safety.”
“The fleet? Well, well, well…” Raynar frowned. “But how would I get there? If we’re worried that someone will try to kidnap me as well as my father, I can’t just—”
“I guess we could take you,” Jacen said. “The Rock Dragon looks like a normal ship, so nobody would suspect anything.”
“Thanks for offering,” Luke said, “but I’m afraid Raynar’s mother was quite insistent: I have to escort him personally. The Shadow Chaser has quantum armor—to shield us from any attack, and I can help guard him with my Jedi skills.”
“But what am I supposed to do when I get there?” the young man said, tugging at his colorful robes. “I need to continue my Jedi training and develop my skills. I can’t be of any help to my father if I’m stuck in isolation with the fleet.”
“Hey, we could go along, Uncle Luke,” Jacen suggested, still trying to find a way to help. “We’ll work on our exercises together. Besides, Raynar needs friends with him right now.”
Raynar looked at Jacen skeptically, and then at the other young Jedi Knights. “You’d do that you’d all come along with me?”
“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka said.
“Sure,” Jaina said. “We haven’t always been very friendly to you, but maybe this is a good time to change that.”
Lowie rumbled his enthusiastic endorsement of the plan.
“I think that’s a terrific idea,” Luke said.
“Good,” Jaina answered, slamming an access hatch on the outside of the Rock Dragon and fastening it. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Lowbacca growled a comment, and Jaina nodded. “The Rock Dragon’s ready to go when the rest of you are.”
2
On the hellish world of Ryloth, half of the planet broiled under sunlight hot enough to soften rock, while the other side crackled with a cold so intense it would make a glacier shiver.
The Twi’leks, the only sentient beings ever to make a long-term home there, had settled in the narrow band of shadow between daylight and darkness. In this twilight region, surface temperatures above ground remained hospitable enough to support life, but the Twi’leks preferred to build shelters by burrowing into the mountain ranges.
They’d carved great warrens, cities beneath the ground, where their clan system had evolved into a complex male-dominated political structure that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Until the Twi’lek woman Nolaa Tarkona had implemented sweeping changes through a swift wave of bloodshed.
Forming the Diversity Alliance had been her key to freedom and power. She was the political movement’s outspoken and charismatic leader, uniting downtrodden alien species that had suffered for so long under human domination.
Now Nolaa held the deepest, most defensible chambers beneath the mountains, and had set up her headquarters there.
After her rise to power, her followers had excavated an underground spaceport adjacent to the grotto that allowed her powerful allies direct access to Ryloth, and from there, out to the galaxy at large.
The Twi’lek leader sat in her cool, expanded grotto, a throne room of sorts. She had a great deal of work to do. Managing a galaxy-wide political movement required constant effort, concentration, and vigilance.
Here, deep underground, she had to rely on chronometers and assistants to tell her when it was time to stop working and begin the sleeping period. Of late, though, she had curtailed her rest hours.
Plans she had set in motion continued to brew; their demands weighed heavily upon her, and she had far too many obligations to bother with sleep. If her revolution failed and she was killed, then she could sleep for all eternity.
Nolaa sat comfortably in her stone chair, not allowing the seething thoughts and emotions inside to show though her facade of outward calm. In a sense, the rich red lighting in this room spoke for her.. It reflected the deep-seated anger and thirst for revenge that boiled in her heart, and the multitude of ideas for bringing about the ultimate triumph of the Diversity Alliance that whirled through her mind.
She clacked her finger claws together, feeling their tough hardness, like the spines on the shell of a sidrek megapede. Nolaa could rip out the throat of any enemy or unsuspecting friend—with one sweep of her hands. Although she kept herself physically ready for combat, her primary arsenal consisted of the words she used to forge the emotions of crowds into weapons, turning her followers into a fighting force. Nolaa Tarkona had become good at getting her way.
Hovrak, her wolfman Adjutant Advisor, marched into the room, his fetal eyes bright in the grotto dimness. Nolaa kept the reddish lights turned down, but her rose-quartz eyes focused well in the shadows.