Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Raynar had broken into the Diversity Alliance headquarters, a deliberately antagonistic act. To let them go unpunished would be sheer folly. And, more important, Nolaa Tarkona couldn’t allow anyone to try to shake the convictions of her loyal followers.
But his friends had come for him, Lowie bellowed. And he had not joined the Diversity Alliance! Nolaa Tarkona had no right to imprison anyone who came to see him.
With genuine fear in her eyes, Raaba glanced around in alarm, as if afraid that someone might have overheard him. She adjusted her tattered red headband and urged Lowie to keep his voice down.
Growling quietly, he demanded in no uncertain terms to know where his friends were.
Raaba hunched her shoulders and looked at the floor. Nothing could help the humans now, she explained. He had to accept that. She had already done everything she could to mitigate the severity of their sentence. At least they were still alive; considering their obvious offenses, mining ryll was the least punishment they might have expected. Nolaa Tarkona had said that it was only fitting—since humans had enslaved so many species over the centuries—that they should now work to support the Diversity Alliance as it struggled to help all oppressed species.
Lowie gave a sharp bark of reproof. By such logic, had not humans now become a downtrodden species under the Diversity Alliance? It was obvious that humans were not the only species known for their cruelty to others.
Again, Raaba refused to meet his eyes, but she bristled with indignation. Humans had been users and enslavers as long as history could remember; it was only fair that they now reap the crop they had so bountifully planted.
Lowie raised his voice again, not caring anymore who might hear him.
Such practices were no more correct now than they had ever been!
Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Raynar were his friends. Those humans in the ryll mines had risked their lives to come here for him! He was going to pounds d a way to set them free—and if Raaba had ever been his friend, she had better not try to stop him.
When Raaba made no answer, Lowie stormed out of the room as abruptly as he had entered.
14
As he angrily traced his way through the Diversity Alliance computers, Lowie uncovered false file names, broke passwords, and tracked down all the records he needed to see. With each discovery, he grew more and more outraged over the secrets Nolaa Tarkona had kept from him—and from many of her followers.
His friends had come here to see him, to talk to him … but the supposedly compassionate Diversity Alliance had thrown them into the spice mines. As slaves!
All the while, Raaba had continued her sweet words to Lowie, trying to persuade him to join the Diversity Alliance. Apparently, his personal honor and his own wishes didn’t figure into her plans. She had hoped to prevent him from talking to the other young Jedi Knights, probably because she was too afraid to let him make up his own mind, to think for himself.
As he scanned a diagram of the complex passages around Diversity Alliance headquarters, Lowie found the vault where his friends’ lightsabers had been stored. He memorized the access code. His first step would be to retrieve the precious weapons. Next he would rescue the young Jedi Knights. Then, together, they would all get away from Ryloth.
He’d had doubts before, but no longer. He was completely through with the Diversity Alliance.
When Raaba had returned to him, Lowie had been so happy—but now he wished he’d never left Yavin 4.
Computers were Lowie’s specialty. He knew how to cover his electronic “tracks.” After removing every trace of his searches, Lowie switched off the terminal. He said nothing to the Sullustan computer technicians or the burnished-bronze hacker droids as he left the glassed-in room and set off down the convoluted path to the locked storeroom.
Since he was a respected guest of Nolaa Tarkona, the guards did not challenge him. Lowie had learned long ago that the key to successful bluffing lay in looking confident that you had a right to be where you were and to do what you were doing. He made his way firmly and decisively down winding corridors, taking turbolifts to other levels and passing through restricted areas, until he finally reached the little-used storage vault.
Lowie paused in front of the sealed metal hatch. A part of him still found it impossible to believe that he had been so completely deceived, and this would confirm—or prove false—all of his suspicions. He flexed his fingers, sniffed the air. His Force sensitivity had been scrambled by his conflicting emotions ever since he’d arrived on Ryloth; it seemed difficult to trust his Jedi training now. But somehow he sensed that he would not be alone here for long, and wasted no time.
His powerful fingers punched in the access code, and the vault door slid aside. Lowbacca’s ginger fur bristled as he scanned the narrow metal shelves. He saw three lightsabers inside: Jaina’s weapon, fashioned around a power crystal she had grown chemically in her quarters; Jacen’s, constructed using a Corusca gem he had mined himself at Lando Calrissian’s GemDiver Station; and finally, Tenel Ka’s carved rancor tooth handle. He also saw the utility belt that had been stripped from the warrior girl.
He let a growl build deep in his throat. His friends were here—and they were in danger.
Scooping up the three lightsabers, Lowie put them in a pouch attached to his syren-fiber belt, then rested his paw on the lightsaber clipped at his waist. This was a time for Jedi Knights to fight together.
Before turning away, Lowie froze as he looked down. He let out a low rumble of surprise. There on the bottom shelf he saw a silvery ovoid, its optical sensors dimmed from loss of power. Emteedee had been shut down and stored here as well. The Diversity Alliance, Lowie surmised, was planning to scavenge parts and circuitry from the miniaturized translating droid, or perhaps to search through its memory for weaknesses in humans or in the New Republic.
Lowie crouched low to pick up the translating droid. He looked around warily, anticipating Em Teedee’s outburst upon being switched back on.
Still sensing no one else nearby, Lowie risked reactivating the droid.
Em Teedee’s optical sensors glowed brightly.
He burst out in a tinny voice, “Oh, Master Lowbacca! How wonderful to see you again! We’ve been searching ever so long for you—and oh my, such terrible guards and soldiers! They did horrible things to Mistress Jaina and Master Jacen, and-” Lowie groaned for the droid to keep quiet and placed a meaty paw over the speaker grille. Em Teedee protested, but Lowie just shook his head and growled a warning about the danger they faced.
Em Teedee fell silent at once, awaiting further instructions.
Lowie’s spirits rose. Filled with renewed confidence now that he had the Jedi weapons and his own translating droid, he began on the next part of his plan. Firmly, and with great satisfaction, Lowie clipped Em Teedee back onto his belt, right where the droid belonged.
The stolen uniform of the Diversity Alliance security guard felt stiff and uncomfortable. But Lowie was pleased to note that the black studded sash around his waist, as well as the armored pads on his shoulders, gave him a fearsome appearance. He fluffed up the black streak over his left eye to make himself look even more intimidating—or so he hoped.
He marched purposefully down the corridor and took a turbolift to the excavation levels.
Once there, he boarded a highpowered mining car that whisked him off to the mine’s nether regions. On the way, Lowie glanced at his chronometer, noting just how many minutes he had before his diversion began.
Plenty of time—provided he didn’t encounter any problems.