From start to finish, it would take only a few minutes to bring the Rebels to their knees.
Qorl centered the Great Temple in his targeting cross, aiming at the apex of the squared-off pyramid, with its thin banks of skylights and ancient vine-covered sculptures. The TIE fighter zoomed in.
He grasped the firing stick with his good hand. At exactly the right moment he depressed the firing buttons, letting an expression of anticipation light his normally emotionless face.
Nothing.
He squeezed the button again and again—and nothing happened! The weapons systems did not respond.
Qorl flicked on the backups as he spun the TIE fighter in the air, barreling down again on his target. Over and over he tried to fire, but the laser cannons were completely dead. His eyes swept the diagnostic panels, but all the readings seemed normal.
With his gloved hand Qorl pounded on the instrumentation panel, as if that would fix anything—and with old Imperial equipment, sometimes it did. But not this time.
He frantically worked with the controls, digging under the panels to restart the weapons systems even as he flew on. He reached down and felt around his seat, searching for anything he could use to jump-start the malfunctioning laser cannons.
Qorl caught the glimmer out of the corner of his eye, reflected against the dark goggles of his helmet. He glanced down and noticed something moving … sinuous, barely seen, glittering and transparent.
The crystal snake reared up right beside him, its triangular head showing up as a faint rainbow in the glow from the cockpit lights. Qorl, who had seen plenty of the reptilian creatures during his exile on Yavin 4, spotted it immediately and reacted.
He let out a startled cry and tried to brush the snake away. It lunged and bit down as he reached out with his crippled arm to block it. The crystal snake dug its spearlike fangs info the thick leather of Qorl’s gauntlet, but was unable to penetrate all the way to his skin.
As he flung his hand back and forth, Qorl could feel the heavy weight of the crystal snake writhing, snapping, though he could see almost nothing at all.
He let the TIE fighter fly itself as he reached with his good hand to grab the long body of the serpent just behind its head, He ripped the fangs free and stuffed the thrashing creature into the cockpit jettison chute. With a cry of disgust he ejected the snake into the air, where it fell toward the treetops of the jungle moon, disappearing instantly in the bright sunlight.
He wrestled for control of his weaponless vessel. The Jedi twins must have done something in their repairs.
He managed to stabilize his erratic flight… but before he could decide on a new course, bright streaks from an enemy laser cannon sizzled through the air, bolts of energy that ionized the atmosphere around Qorl’s TIE fighter.
He yanked at the control stick with his good arm, and his fighter lurched into a starboard spin. The Rebel light freighter had taken to the air and was flying after Qorl like a furious bird of prey. And its weapons worked just fine.
Qorl punched in full power to the twin ion engines and decided that his only chance for now was to try to escape.
In the heart of the jungle, next to Qorl’s primitive dwelling, Jacen and Jaina sat beside each other, deep in concentration. They reached out with the Force to see what was going on back at the Jedi academy. Their powers were only sufficient to bring them shadowy images, distant echoes of thoughts… but it was enough.
“He didn’t know I never fixed the weapons systems… but then, he never asked. I managed to jury-rig the readouts so they would lock normal,” Jaina said at last. “He can fly, but his ship is defenseless.”
“Yes, and I think the crystal snake must have distracted Qorl somehow,” Jacen said.
“I wonder what happened to it.” They smiled at each other.
“I suppose our next step,” Jacen said, squinting up at the morning light that filtered through the trees, “is to figure out how to get back home.”
Jaina pushed a tangle of her usually straight brown hair back from her face and took a deep breath. “Agreed,” she said, then clapped her hands and rubbed them together. “So what are we waiting for?”
21
“Hang on!” Han Solo yelled.
As the Millennium Falcon lifted off from the trampled landing area in front of the ancient temple, Tenel Ka struggled to a seat beside Lowbacca and strapped herself in.
“That TIE fighter’s coming in, and it looks mean,” Han said as he and his Wookiee copilot frantically set switches and calibrated the weapons targeting systems. “Hope Tionne managed to get all the Jedi trainees to safety.”
Their seats tilted back as the Falcon angled up into the air, its sublight thrusters roaring behind it. The Imperial TIE fighter broke through the sky overhead like a yowling battering ram.
Han Solo looked grim as he gripped the controls. His jaw was set, his shoulders rigid, At the moment he had no way of knowing whether his children were safe, or if this Imperial enemy had killed them both, just as the pilot had tried to blast Lowbacca and Tenel Ka.
Tenel Ka wished she could give him some reassurance, but she knew nothing herself. Still panting with exhaustion from her long run through the jungle, she adjusted the restraints across the reptilian armor on her chest. At her side Em Teedee’s thin, warbly voice spoke up. “I beg your pardon, Mistress Tenel Ka, but I can’t see a thing! Your crash webbing has blocked my optical sensors.”
When Tenel Ka freed the flat, silvery device from its restraints, Em Teedee let out what sounded like a sigh of relief. “Ah, yes, much better. Now I can see perfectly. Oh, dear!” he said in alarm. “I didn’t want you to rescue me from that dreadful jungle just so we could all be blown up chasing that TIE fighter.”
Lowbacca grunted and looked over at the small translating droid with obvious surprise and relief.
“This is yours, Lowbacca,” Tenel Ka said. “I found it in the jungle.” She handed Em Teedee to the young Wookiee, who accepted the little droid gratefully, bleating his thanks.
Han Solo spun the Falcon around in a tight arc, its engines rumbling behind them as they pursued the TIE fighter. “He’s coming in on an attack run,” Han said. “But he’s not firing his weapons for some reason.”
Through the cockpit windows, Tenel Ka watched as the TIE fighter she had helped to repair zoomed low over the Great Temple, seemingly bent on destruction—but its laser cannons did not fire.
“I’m going to get his attention, Chewie,” Han said. “You open a comm channel. That guy did something to my kids—and I want to find out where they are.”
Chewbacca growled and reached with his long hairy arm to toggle a few switches on the Millennium Falcon’s control panel.
Han fired two warning shots. Bolts of brilliant light streaked past the squarish planar wings of the Imperial craft-bracketing it, but doing no damage.
“Attention, TIE pilot,” Han said. “You’re going nowhere if I don’t find out where…” He paused.”… the two young Jedi Knights are. You’re in the middle of my targeting cross, so your choices are simple: surrender, or we blow you out of the sky.”
A gruff voice came back over the comm systems. “Surrender is betrayal,” the pilot said, then broke the connection.
The TIE fighter zoomed upward on an impossibly steep trajectory, climbing into the air above the dense green treetops. Then the Imperial ship wheeled about in an evasive maneuver.
“All right,” Han said, his anger evident. “This old ship has taken on plenty of TIE fighters in its day. We can take on one more. Punch it, Chewie.”
The Falcon lunged forward in another burst of speed as Chewbacca worked the controls.