Suddenly, Jaina sat up straight. “Look!” she said, pointing up. A white starpoint grew brighter, glittering silver. Ripples of sound from a sonic boom echoed like thunder across the sky of Yavin 4. “It’s a ship.”
Jacen closed his liquid-brown eyes and smiled. Then the twins blinked and looked at each other. “The Falcon,” they said in unison.
“Can Dad sense us?” Jacen asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jaina said. “At least not with the Force. But wait…” She closed her eyes again, reaching out with what she knew of Jedi powers. “Lowie’s with him!”
“And Tenel Ka, too,” Jacen said. “They’re all right!”
Jaina laughed with relief. “Did you expect any less from a young Jedi Knight?”
The Falcon must have spotted their smoke, and now headed toward them. High in the branches, the twins stood and waved. As it approached, the blaster-scarred light freighter seemed the most beautiful machine they had ever seen.
The big ship hovered over them with a gust of its repulsorlifts. Branches blew away beneath them, but Jacen and Jaina held their positions, reaching upward as the bottom access hatch of the Falcon popped open.
Chewbacca’s hairy arm dangled down, grabbing Jacen’s hands and pulling him up into the ship as if he were a piece of lightweight luggage. A moment later, Lowie’s ginger-furred arms reached out to help Jaina up.
Han scrambled from the cockpit, rushing to scoop up both of his children in a big hug. “You’re alive—you’re not hurt!” he said, looking them over with anxious relief. “Sorry I’m late.”
“It’s all right,” Jacen answered. “We knew you’d come.”
Tenel Ka and Lowie also greeted the twins, with hugs all around and enthusiastic thumps on the back.
“Oh, hooray!” Em Teedee’s tinny voice chimed in. “This is cause for a celebration.”
“Let’s get back to the Jedi academy first; I’m sure everyone’s been worried about us,” Han said. “I think we need to tell about a few adventures.”
A few days later, after the Falcon carried the T-23 back from where it had crashed in the treetops, Lowbacca and Jaina worked in the shadow-draped courtyard of the Great Temple, tinkering with the damaged skyhopper. Jaina poked her grease-smeared face up out of the engine compartment and looked around.
She watched as Jacen scurried across the landing field out front, low to the ground, trying to catch an eight-legged lizard crab he wanted to add to his collection. Leaves and broken blades of grass were tangled in his tousled hair, as usual. The creature darted left and right, trying to find a hiding place among the close-cropped weeds of the landing field.
Spying a large shady spot, the lizard crab scuttled for shelter out of reach under the T-23. Jaina giggled as Jacen pulled up short just in time to keep from banging his head against the skyhopper’s hull.
With a shrug, he leaned against the craft and brushed the dirt from his jumpsuit. “Oh well,” he said, grinning. “Next time.”
“As long as you’re just standing there, could you please hand me a hydrospanner?” Jaina said.
Jacen bent and rummaged in the tool kit on the grass, then handed the tool up.
“You concentrate on the onboard computer systems, Lowie,” Jaina said, discussing repair strategies. “That’s what you’re best at.” At the Wookiee’s growl of agreement, she added, “Don’t worry about these engines. I’ll have them running again in no time.”
“Mind if I join you?” a calm voice said from behind her.
“Uncle Luke!” Jaina cried, jumping up and turning toward him. “When did you get back?”
“Only this morning,” Luke Skywalker said, looking admiringly at the vehicle. “Could you use any help? I’m pretty good with these little air speeders, you know.” He smiled as if savoring a fond memory. “I had a ship a little like this once… my own T-16 skyhopper when I was growing up on—”
Just then, Tenel Ka emerged from the large lower door of the Great Temple. The cool underlevels had once stored the Rebel base’s X-wing fighters.
“Excuse me for a moment,” Luke said, and turned to raise his hand in a warm greeting. He strode over to Tenel Ka and spoke to her for a long while as if she were an old friend. Being with the great Jedi Master caused the young girl from Dathomir to look uncharacteristically intimidated.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jaina asked the others. She opened an inner access panel with her multitool and began running diagnostics on the T-23’s engines. Jacen surreptitiously scanned the cropped grass and weeds, looking for another specimen to catch.
Lowbacca snared a tangle of wires from the cockpit control panels and began sorting them by color and function. He murmured to himself as he worked, and Jacen could hear Em Teedee start to speak. At a clunk of something metal hitting the floor plates, Jacen stuck his head into the T-23. Lowbacca had accidentally dropped Em Teedee from his belt again.
The miniature translating droid began scolding the young Wookiee at high volume. “Really, Master Lowbacca, do try to be careful! You’ve dropped me again, and that’s simply careless. How would you like it if your head detached and kept falling on the ground? I am an extremely valuable piece of equipment and you ought to take better care of me. If my circuits become damaged I won’t be able to translate, and then where will you be? I can’t believe—”
With a grunt, Lowbacca switched off Em Teedee, and then made a satisfied sound.
Jacen looked up to see Jaina staring at the deep blue sky. He followed her gaze and knew exactly what she was thinking. “Do you suppose Qorl ever made it back home?”
“If he does, I wonder if he’ll find what he expects when he gets there,” she answered. “He would have been better off staying with us.”
When they noticed Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka strolling back toward the T-23, Lowie and Jaina climbed out of the dismantled cockpit to stand next to Jacen.
Luke looked at the battered air speeder and ran his fingertips over its smooth hull. “Back on Tatooine I used to roar through Beggar’s Canyon in my own T-16, chasing down womp rats.”
Jacen and Jaina looked at their uncle, amazed and unable to imagine the introspective Jedi Master as a hotshot daredevil pilot.
Luke’s lips curved in a wistful smile. “That was a whole different life from now.” He turned to the young Jedi Knights. “When you get this thing fixed, I’d like to go for a ride with you. If that’s all right.”
They looked at him in astonishment. Lowie muttered something indecipherable and cleared his throat nervously.
“I hope you’re fitting in here, Lowbacca,” Luke said, nodding toward the young Wookiee. “I know it’s difficult to go away from home and stay in a strange place, but I see you’ve made some new friends.”
He looked at the others. “I’m proud of you all,” Luke said. “You did a fine job under very trying circumstances, even when I wasn’t here to guide you. You have a lot of potential—but becoming a Jedi Knight takes a great deal of hard work and practice.”
The students nodded. “This is a fact,” Tenel Ka said solemnly.
“You’re young, and there are many things you could do with your lives,” Luke said. “Are you certain you still want to become Jedi Knights?”
Their enthusiastic shouts rang out in unison. Lowbacca’s loud bellow was so emphatic that even with Em Teedee switched off, none of the others needed a translation.