Jaina ran toward him, eager and interested. “Did you find it, Lowie?”
Lowbacca nodded vigorously.
“What was it?” Jaina asked. “Can you describe it?”
“Master Lowbacca believes it to be some sort of solar panel,” Em Teedee translated as the Wookiee replied. Then the droid launched into a complete description.
Jaina felt her skin prickle with goose bumps. “Hmmmm,” she said. “If I’m right, there should be a lot more to that artifact than what Lowie saw. Let’s keep looking.”
Tenel Ka dug into a small supply pouch she carried with her and withdrew a pack of carbo-protein biscuits. “Here. Nourishment as we search.”
Jacen chomped hungrily on his biscuit. “Just what are we looking for, Jaina?” he asked, speaking around a mouthful of crumbs.
“Scrap metal, machinery, another solar panel.” Jaina shaded her eyes, scanning deeper into the thick jungles around them. “Well keep widening the circle of our search until we find something. What we’re looking for shouldn’t be too far away.”
Jacen retrieved a flask of water from the T-23, took a gulp, and handed it to his sister. Jaina took a few mouthfuls of water and passed the flask on to Lowbacca. Then she set off at a trot for the base of the big tree. Jaina didn’t look back to see if the others were following, and bit her lip, feeling a brief pang of guilt.
At times like this Jaina always seemed to assume leadership, just like her mother. But how could she help it? Her parents had raised all three of their children to assess a situation, weigh the alternatives, and make decisions.
“Let’s spread out,” she said.
“Great!” Jacen said, walking around the massive trunk toward a clump of dense undergrowth.
Jaina smiled, knowing full well that her brother’s excitement came not from a desire to find the mysterious artifact, but from the opportunity to explore the jungle and examine its creatures more closely.
She was about to head into the underbrush herself when Lowbacca stopped her with a questioning growl. Em Teedee translated. “Master Lowbacca says—and I personally am inclined to agree with him—that the jungle floor is not a safe place to split up. Even to speed up a search.”
As impatient as she was to continue looking, Jaina stopped to consider. Tenel Ka caught her eye, placed her hands on her hips, and nodded. “This is a fact.”
Jaina gnawed at her lower lip again, thinking, and came to a decision. “All right. We spread out a little but, but only as far as our line of sight. Good enough?”
The others’ murmurs of agreement were interrupted by a loud squawking as a flock of reptile birds took flight from the bushes near where Jacen had been exploring. Jacen emerged from the bushes on his hands and knees, looking startled, but not displeased.
“No big discoveries,” he reported, “but I did find this.” He held out his palm. In it was a plump, furry gray creature, quivering in a small nest of glossy fibers.
Another animal. Jaina sighed with resignation. She might have guessed.
“Ah. A-hah,” Tenel Ka said. Lowbacca bent forward to run a shaggy finger along the tiny creature’s back.
“Look, Jaina,” Jacen said, turning the fluffy nest in his hand. He pointed to a dull, flat loop of metal that was firmly attached to the mass of fibers.
“A … buckle?” Jaina said, finally comprehending.
Her brother nodded. “Like the kind in crash webbing.”
“Good work,” Tenel Ka said with solemn approval.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jaina asked. “Let’s keep going.”
By midafternoon, though, Jaina began to get discouraged. Jacen, on the other hand, was intrigued by every crawling creature or insect they encountered.
“Do please try to be a bit more cautious!” Jaina could hear Em Teedee saying. “That’s the third dent today. And I’ve lost count of how many scratches I’ve received while you’ve been exploring. Now if you would only be more attentive to—”
Em Teedee’s admonishments were drowned out as Lowie gave a sharp bark of surprise behind a tangle of vines and branches. “Oh! Oh, my. Mistress Jaina, Master Jacen, Mistress Tenel Ka!” Em Teedee’s voice was loud enough to startle not only Jaina but a number of flying and climbing creatures. “Do come quickly. Master Lowbacca has made a discovery.”
Needing no further encouragement, all of them rushed to see what Lowbacca had found. Jaina felt her heart pounding in her chest, knowing and dreading what they would find.
They worked quickly, scratching and cutting their hands as they pulled away the thick plant growth from the heap of metallic wreckage. Jaina gasped as they finally exposed it—a rounded, tarnished cockpit large enough only for a single pilot, one squarish black solar panel crisscrossed with support braces. The other panel was missing, stuck up in the tree where Lowie had found it. But still the ship was unmistakable.
A crashed Imperial TIE fighter.
9
“But why would such a craft be here in the jungles of Yavin 4?” Tenel Ka asked, narrowing her eyes in concern as they worked to remove the debris from the ruined craft. “Is it an Imperial spy ship?”
Jaina shook her head. “Can’t be. TIE fighters were short-range ships used by the Empire. They weren’t equipped with hyperdrive, so there aren’t many ways it could have gotten here.”
Jacen cleared his throat. “Well, I can think of one way,” he said, “but that would make this ship—let’s see…”
“Over twenty years old…” Jaina breathed, finishing his sentence for him.
Lowbacca made a low, questioning noise, and Tenel Ka continued to look perplexed.
Jaina explained. “When the Empire built the first Death Star, it was the most powerful weapon ever made. They tested it by destroying Alderaan, our mother’s homeworld. Then they brought it here to Yavin 4, to destroy the Rebel base.”
As she spoke, Jaina pulled the last bit of brush away from the top canopy of the TIE fighter and looked inside. There were no bones. She slid into the musty cockpit.
“A lot of Rebel pilots died in one-on-one combat with the TIE fighters that protected the Death Star, and a lot of Imperial fighters were shot down too,” Jacen said, picking up the story.
Jaina wrinkled her nose at the mildewy smell, the mold-clogged controls. She ran her fingers over the navigation panels in the cockpit, closing her eyes and wondering what it must have been like twenty-some years ago to be a fighter pilot in the Battle of Yavin 4. She envisioned an enemy fighter swooping toward her in a strafing run, her engine hit, her tiny ship careening out of control. …
Jacen’s voice broke into her thoughts. “But then in the end, our dad flew cover for Uncle Luke’s X-wing fighter while he took his final run. Uncle Luke made the shot that blew up the Death Star.”
Tenel Ka nodded gravely, her braided red-gold hair like a wreath around her head. “And why is it called a TIE fighter?” she asked.
Jaina answered, speaking up from the cockpit, “Because it has twin ion engines. T-I-E, see?”
Ducking her head, she wormed her way to the engine access panels at the rear of the cockpit and pried open the tarnished metal plate. A squeaking rodent, disturbed from its hidden nest, scampered away, vanishing through a small hole in the hull.
Jaina tinkered with the engines, checking integrity, noting the rotted hoses and fuel lines. But overall, the primary motivators seemed intact, though she would have to run numerous diagnostics. She had plenty of spare parts in her room.
She stood up slowly in the cockpit and poked her head out again, then ran her callused hands along the side of the crashed TIE fighter. “You know, I think we could do it,” Jaina said.
All eyes turned toward her, questioning.
“I think we could fix the TIE fighter.”
Her brother stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, then clapped a palm to his forehead. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”