Vilas’s death rattle was swallowed up in the triumphant roar of the crowd.
Zekk stared down at his pulsating scarlet lightsaber, too horrified at what he had done even to look at the body of Vilas. The spectators still cheered. This had been no simulation, he realized. This was real.
Zekk knew he had taken one giant step farther down the road to the dark side. He raised his head, speechless, as the voice of Brakiss echoed through the zero-gravity chamber, drowning out the praise of the onlookers.
“Excellent, Zekk! I knew you could do it.”
Tamith Kai’s somewhat petulant voice came next. “My congratulations, young Lord Zekk.”
Then, to his absolute amazement, overwhelming even his shock at the violence he had committed, the air in the center of the arena shimmered until an ominous image engulfed the drifting obstacles. The huge hooded head of the Emperor himself offered its grim congratulations directly to Zekk.
“You have won this battle, Zekk,” the Emperor said in a voice so filled with cold power it could freeze blood. Zekk drew in a quick gasp. All of the other trainees watched, absorbing their Great Leader’s words.
“You are my Darkest Knight, Zekk. I have chosen you to personally lead my Jedi into battle against Skywalker’s Jedi academy.”
19
The muffled thump of an explosion in the middle of the night was already fading by the time Tenel Ka reacted and sat up, suddenly wide awake.
She strained her ears, but heard nothing more. She had slept fitfully a few times since coming to the thick-walled Reef Fortress—but she had never woken up without cause. Had she really heard the sound of a blast? She couldn’t be sure. Perhaps it had merely been a part of her uneasy dream….
Around her, the room was dark and shadowy, lit only by the metallic silver glow of moonlight spilling in from the window. The deep darkness was quiet. Too quiet. With a fluid motion Tenel Ka slid off her bed, stood, paused to listen, then crept forward to the fortress window.
Her skin prickled, but not from cold. She recognized the reaction of her Jedi senses transmitting messages of danger—an indefinable uneasiness that was rapidly growing closer to full-fledged alarm. Something was definitely not right.
Tenel Ka looked out the stone-framed window down to the glossy midnight ocean that stretched into inky blackness. The breakers, capped with moonlight, crashed against the dark reefs. She heard the rushing, hissing ocean—and realized that the sound should not have been so clear.
Where was the background hum of the night perimeter shields?
Leaning forward, Tenel Ka narrowed her eyes to study the air. A telltale shimmer should have been visible to demonstrate that a protective field surrounded the fortress—but she saw nothing. Then her attention turned to a glimmer of light and a smudge of smoke rising into the air near the generator station.
The shield generator had been destroyed! That meant Reef Fortress now stood unprotected.
Tenel Ka drew back, intending to whirl around and sound the alarm—when a faint motion far below caught her eye. Her heart pounding, all Jedi senses alert, she glanced down to where the steep stone walls blended into the uneven lumps of the reef. A strange camouflaged ship, long and angular, floated just above the waves on repulsorfields.
“Ah. Aha,” she said. “Assault craft of some sort.” Then she sucked in a sharp breath as she saw figures moving—more than a dozen.
Black, many-legged creatures like large insects swarmed up the base of the fortress—and scaled the sheer walls effortlessly. Tenel Ka instantly recognized the tactics, the black body armor, the skittering, segmented movements. Her stomach tied itself into an icy knot, and adrenaline shot through her veins. The Bartokks, deadly humanoid insects, were legendary for their relentless and resourceful assassin squads.
Tenel Ka raced over to the comm unit mounted on a stone wall near her door and slapped the alarm button to sound a general call to arms—but nothing happened. She pushed the alarm firmly once again with her hand, and found that the entire warning system was dead.
“Lights,” she called, but her room remained dark. All power, including backup generators, had been cut off to Reef Fortress.
They were in deep trouble.
Bending over and using the stump of her arm to hold the buckle in place, she took a moment to fasten her utility belt over the supple reptilian armor in which she slept. Tenel Ka pulled her hair back with a thong, letting the long red-gold braids drape like a crown around her head. It was time for action. She would have to rouse everyone.
Tenel Ka rushed down the corridor and pounded on the door to Jacen’s room. Lowbacca bellowed from his own chamber and flung the door open. Jaina hurried out of the gadget room.
“What’s going on?” Jacen asked, dragging unsteady fingers through his sleep-tousled hair.
“Something … dangerous,” Jaina said, already sensing the situation. “A serious threat.”
Lowbacca roared, his wildly disheveled fur standing out in every direction as he attempted to strap on the glossy white belt made of syren-plant fiber. “Emergency?” Em Teedee said. “Perhaps we are all simply overreacting.”
“No. We are not,” Tenel Ka answered. “The power to the fortress has been cut off, and our defensive force field no longer functions. The generating station has been destroyed. We are currently under attack by a Bartokk assassin squad.”
Jacen shuddered. “Hey, I’ve heard of them. Insects, right? And they all work together as a hive, to assassinate their assigned target.”
Tenel Ka nodded. “They are fearsome mercenaries, fighting as one organism. Once given a target, they continue to fight until the very last member of their hive has been killed—or until their victim lies dead.”
“I’m sure that’s terribly efficient,” Em Teedee observed, “but they certainly don’t sound very friendly.”
Jaina frowned, looking determined. “Well then, what are we waiting for?” She retrieved her lightsaber from her quarters while Jacen ran back into the aquarium room to fetch his weapon, too.
Lowbacca, his lightsaber already at his waist, roared in challenge. “Now, Master Lowbacca, getting delusions of grandeur can be hazardous to your health,” Em Teedee said. Lowie just snarled, the black streak across the top of his head bristling with anger.
Tenel Ka stepped into the Wookiee’s room, marched to the far wall, and yanked free the jagged ceremonial spear mounted there as ornamentation. Holding the spear one-handed, she said, “We must fight them.”
Suddenly they heard a crash and a shout, then brief weapons fire from the far end of the corridor that led to the isolated tower containing the matriarch’s quarters.
“My grandmother!” Tenel Ka said. “She must be their primary target.”
Still holding the spear, she raced down the cold flagstones of the dim hall. All glowpanels had gone out, and only the moonlight streaming through the corridor windows lit her way—but Tenel Ka had known these twists and turns since childhood.
Growling, Lowbacca sprinted after her while the twins ran at top speed to keep up. Jacen and Jaina ignited their lightsabers, and the brilliant energy glow splashed ahead, shedding enough light for them to see. Tenel Ka heard more shouts, a loud scuffle, and her grandmother’s voice calling for help.
“We must hurry,” Tenel Ka said, putting on an extra burst of speed. Someone had to have contracted the assassin squad to remove the former queen, she reasoned. Was it Ambassador Yfra? Once Ta’a Chume was dead—and with Tenel Ka’s parents gone—the ambassador probably would not consider a one-armed girl in lizard hide much of a threat to her power. She could easily take over the rulership of the Hapes Cluster.
While the idea enraged her, Tenel Ka could not afford to think about it at the moment.