The two Dark Jedi came into the clearing and stopped. “I see nothing here,” said one. “Lord Brakiss would be ashamed of you. Lord Zekk would take away your lightsaber. The powers of the dark side are wasted on you.”
“I tell you, I sensed it,” said the other. He stepped forward, looking from side to side, studying the quiet jungle. His companion stood next to him, scowling.
At that moment the Jedi used all her stored reserves—and acted. She ignited the lightsaber and slashed sideways with her branch arm, like a bent sapling suddenly released to snap straight again.
“I am sorry, Grandfather Tree,” she said—and her lightsaber blade cleaved through the trunk of the tottering old Massassi tree, severing it from the stump and letting the arms of gravity embrace it. Its wide-branched top leaned over and the tree crashed onto the two Dark Jedi intruders. They had time only to look up with a muffled outcry of surprise as a meteor of branches and vines smashed down upon them.
The Jedi deactivated her lightsaber, then felt a trembling through her entire wooden body. In one act, she had drained months and months of her energy reserves. She stretched her branches up toward the sunlight, dug her roots deeper.
It would take her a long time to recover from this day.
9
After crossing the river, Jaina fought her way through the jungle, seeking a suitable path through the thickest underbrush while keeping herself hidden from other attackers. Right now, the tangled forest was her ally, and she could use the cover to her advantage. She wasn’t afraid to combat the Dark Jedi threatening the academy—but she had a vital mission in mind … something more to her tastes.
As long as the defensive energy shields remained down and the generator damaged, the entire area was vulnerable to repeated attacks from the skies. Luke Skywalker’s trainees were defending themselves … but if Jaina could somehow repair the shield generator and get the protective force field up again, the new Jedi Knights could take care of these audacious enemies one at a time.
Jaina finally made her way to the clearing where her father and Chewbacca had recently installed the new energy shield generator. With only a glance she saw that the machinery was irreparable, despite her usual knack for fixing things.
Normally, she could make temporary repairs to get systems up and running again, at least for a while. But not in this case. An Imperial saboteur had used thermal detonators to wipe out the entire generating station. It was hopelessly ruined, a pile of shrapnel; no simple fixup would do.
Jaina’s attention remained on the generator for only a moment, however. She caught her breath.
There in the clearing sat an Imperial TIE fighter in perfect condition.
Ever since Chewbacca had given Lowie the T-23 skyhopper, Jaina had longed for a vehicle of her own. That, in fact, had been the impetus behind her desire to repair the crashed TIE fighter the young Jedi Knights had found in the jungles—Qorl’s TIE fighter.
She stopped and stared, frozen with excitement and apprehension. But other than the muffled noises of battle in the jungles and the distant shouts and blaster fire near the Great Temple, she heard no sound.
Jaina withdrew her lightsaber and pressed the power stud. The beam sprang outward, glowing an electric violet. Then she crept forward stealthily, ready to fight if the TIE pilot emerged with his blaster drawn. But she sensed no one else around, heard no noise from the craft.
“Hello?” Jaina called. “You’d better surrender if you’re an Imperial!” She waited. “Uh, is anyone here?”
Only the simmering jungle noises answered her.
Moving forward, letting her eagerness take over, she ran to the abandoned TIE fighter. It was a sinister-looking ship: a rounded cockpit suspended between two flat hexagonal power arrays, twin ion engines that would propel the small fighter across space, a bank of deadly laser cannons.
Ideas and possibilities thundered through her mind. If she could pilot this ship into the enemy’s midst, Jaina would be in disguise. She could slip in among them, and they wouldn’t know she was actually an enemy … until it was too late.
Switching off her lightsaber again, Jaina opened the cockpit hatch and crawled inside. She had studied how TIE fighters worked when she and her friends had replaced the components of Qorl’s crashed ship. She knew the buttons on the control panels, knew how the systems activated. Though the exiled old pilot had flown off in his ship before Jaina had had a chance to take it on a flight, she was confident she could handle the craft.
She settled into the pilot’s seat, noting the oily scent of stale lubricants and the sour odors the Empire did not bother to remove. A rebreather mask hung next to a small life-support console. The cockpit walls closed around her like a protective shell, giving her little room to move, but all the controls were at her fingertips. Through the ship’s front ports, she could see outside.
Jaina found the power switch and toggled it on, felt the engines’ thrumming, systems gearing up, batteries charging. Control panel lights winked on in a brilliant flurry around her. She drew a deep breath, strapped herself in, and clutched the controls.
“All systems ready for takeoff,” she whispered to herself. She glanced at the sky, looking for the black specks of other Imperial ships. “Okay, TIE fighters, prepare for some company!”
The Imperial craft raised up as Jaina worked the controls. Clearing the jungle treetops, she felt the exhilaration of actually flying. The ship seemed unbelievably quiet inside, until she realized that its noisier primary engines had been disengaged. This TIE fighter flew so quietly because it used only the lesser-powered engines. So that was how the enemy pilot had gotten under their shield unnoticed! No doubt the original systems remained intact, but the enemy commando had slipped in without the familiar howl of TIE engines.
All right then, Jaina thought—she could be silent and deadly as well. Finally skimming the treetops, she scanned around, acquiring targets. She shot forward, reveling in the thrill of flight, the landscape passing beneath her in a mottled green blur.
Up ahead she saw six TIE fighters flying in formation, firing down at the treetops, pounding the temple ruins, even structures that had never been used for training Jedi. The Palace of the Woolamander, an ancient ruin already nearly collapsed, was pummeled with brilliant streaks from laser cannons, though Jaina didn’t believe any Jedi Knights had gone there.
She kept the Imperial comm channels on so she could hear the terse, gruff chatter as the TIE pilots discussed their overall plan, choosing targets, firing at moving figures sheltered by the thick Massassi trees.
Jaina kept her microphone off, though, as she joined the formation of TIE fighters, slipping in at the rear. Over the comm system she heard them acknowledge her arrival; rather than making them suspicious by speaking with a young woman’s voice, she just clicked an okay over the microphone.
Then she powered up her laser cannons.
One of the TIE fighters broadcast, “Plenty of targets here for everybody. Let’s cause some damage.”
Jaina bit hen lower lip and nodded. “Yes,” she muttered to herself, “let’s cause some damage.”
She let her eyes fall partially closed and concentrated, feeling the Force. Despite the sensors and systems available in the TIE fighter, nothing could match heightened Jedi perceptions for enhancing her movements. She needed to target and fire and target again with lightning speed. She would have only one chance.
Jaina gripped the control stick of her weapons and focused on the aiming mechanisms, flying smoothly behind the unsuspecting Imperials. She had to disable them with one shot each. She couldn’t risk repeated fire on a single target, because once she started shooting, they would be rather upset with her.
Jaina sought out the most vulnerable points: their engines and the joints that held the planar power arrays to their sides. If the TIE fighters turned side-on to her, she would blast the power arrays themselves—large targets, impossible to miss.