“Used my Corusca gem,” he explained, pointing toward his boot, where he had stashed the stone again.
Jaina nodded, as if she had known all along what her brother would do.
“We’ve got to find Lowie and free him, too,” Jacen said.
“Of course,” Jaina agreed. “We’ll escape and warn Uncle Luke before Brakiss makes his raid on the Jedi academy.”
“Right,” Jacen said with a lopsided grin. “Uh, since I got us this far, I was hoping you could figure out the rest of the plan.”
Jaina beamed at him as if he had paid her the highest compliment she could imagine. “Already have,” she said. “What are we waiting for?”
They managed to find Lowie, who was excited to see them, and Em Teedee, who was not. “I feel obligated to warn you that I simply must sound an alarm,” the translating droid said. “My duty is to the Empire now and it’s my responsibility—”
Jaina gave the little droid a rap with her knuckles. “If you make so much as a peep,” she said, “we’ll rewire your vocal circuits so that you talk backwards and they’ll toss you in the scrap heap.”
“You wouldn’t!” Em Teedee said in a huff.
“Wanna bet?” Jaina asked in a dangerously sweet voice.
Jacen stood next to her and glared at the miniaturized translating droid. Lowie added his own threatening growl.
“Oh, all right, all right,” Em Teedee said. “But I submit to this only under stringent protest. The Empire is, after all, our friend.”
Jaina snorted. “No it isn’t. Think we may need to arrange for a complete brain wipe when we get you back to Yavin 4.”
“Oh, dear me,” Em Teedee said.
Jaina looked around, casting her gaze from one end of the silent corridor to the other. She rubbed her hands together and bit her lower lip, considering options. “All right, this is the plan.” She pointed to one of the corridor terminals.
“Lowie,” she said, “can you use that computer to slice into the main station controls? I need you to drop the Shadow Academy’s cloaking device and also seal all the doors so that no one gets out of their quarters. No sense inviting trouble for ourselves.”
Lowie made a sound of optimistic agreement.
“Lowbacca, you aren’t capable of accomplishing all of that,” Em Teedee said, “and I’m certain you know it.” Lowie growled at him.
“If we can all get to the shuttle bay,” Jaina continued, “I think I can pilot one of the ships out of here. I’ve trained in simulators for various craft, and you know I was ready to fly that TIE fighter before Qorl took it.”
Lowie tapped the keyboard of the computer terminal with his long hairy fingers. He hunched low to stare at the screen, which was not mounted for someone of Wookiee stature. Lowie called up the screens he needed, showing the status of the Shadow Academy’s shuttle bay.
“Perfect,” Jaina said. “A new ship just came in, still powered up and ready to go. We’ll take that one, as soon as Lowie locks everyone in their rooms.”
Lowbacca grunted in agreement and kept working, but he soon encountered an impenetrable wall of security passwords. He groaned in frustration.
“Well, there now, you see?” Em Teedee said. “I told you you couldn’t do it by yourself.”
Lowie growled, but Jaina brightened as an idea struck her. “He’s right,” she said. “But Em Teedee was reprogrammed by the Empire. Why not plug him into the main computer and let him get through for us?” She plucked the small translating droid from the clip at Lowbacca’s waist and began opening Em Teedee’s back access panel.
“I most certainly will not,” Em Teedee said. “I simply couldn’t. It would be disloyal to the Empire and completely inappropriate for me to—”
Lowie made a threatening sound, and Em Teedee fell silent.
Working rapidly, with nimble fingers, Jaina pulled wires, electrical leads, and input jacks from the droid’s head case and plugged them into appropriate ports on the Shadow Academy’s computer terminal.
“Oh, my,” Em Teedee said. “Ah, this is much better. I can see so many things! I feel as if my brain is full to overflowing. A wealth of information awaits me—”
“The passwords, Em Teedee,” Jaina said, reaching toward the recalcitrant droid.
“Oh, dear me, yes. Of course—the passwords!” Em Teedee said hastily. “But I remind you, I really shouldn’t.”
“Just do it,” Jaina snapped.
“Ah, yes, here it is. But don’t blame me if the whole lot of stormtroopers comes after you.”
The screen winked, displaying the files Lowbacca had been trying to access. Jacen and Jaina sighed with relief, and Lowie made a pleased sound. His ginger-furred fingers were a blur as he descended rapidly through menu after menu, finally penetrating all the way into the station computer’s main core.
With two swift commands Lowie shut down the Shadow Academy’s cloaking device. Then, with a resounding clunk that echoed throughout the station, he closed and sealed every door except those the three of them would need to escape. He yowled in triumph.
Belatedly, the station alarms went off, screeching and grating with a harsh, piercing sound, unpleasant as only Imperial engineers could make it.
Lowie unplugged Em Teedee. “There, I tried to warn you,” the silvery droid said. “But you wouldn’t listen, would you?”
21
Brakiss sat contemplating in his dim office, long after the other workers had retired for the night. He reveled in the dramatic images on his walls: galactic disasters in progress, the fury of the universe unleashed like a storm around him—with Brakiss as its calm center, able to touch those immense forces but not be affected by them.
Brakiss had just written up the plans for a swift attack on Yavin 4 so that he could steal more of Master Skywalker’s Jedi students. He had sent the encoded message deep into the Core Systems to the great Imperial leader, who had immediately approved his plans. The leader was eager to get more ready-chosen Jedi students to train as dark warriors.
The assault would occur in the next few days, while Skywalker was no doubt still reeling from the loss of the twins and the Wookiee, perhaps even away from Yavin 4 looking for them. Tamith Kai would go along for the assault. She needed the outlet to vent her anger, to drain some of the rage she kept bottled within herself. That way she could be more effective.
Brakiss stood and looked at the blindingly bright image of the Denarii Nova, two suns pouring fire onto each other. Something was bothering him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The day had gone routinely. The three young Jedi Knights were doing even better than he’d expected. But still Brakiss had a bad feeling, a low-level uneasiness.
He walked slowly out of his chambers, his silvery robes flickering around him like candlelight. He let the door of his office remain open as he turned to scrutinize the empty corridor. Everything was quiet, just as it should have been.
Brakiss frowned, decided he must be imagining things, and turned back toward his office. But before he could get there, the door slammed shut of its own accord. Brakiss found himself trapped outside his office.
Up and down the corridor the few open doors also sealed themselves. He heard clicking sounds as locking mechanisms engaged all around the station.
Automatic alarms shrieked. Brakiss would not tolerate such an interruption in his routine. Someone would be punished for this. He held the storm inside himself and strode down the halls, intent on squashing the disturbance.
Jacen, Jaina, and Lowie rushed into the docking bay, tense and ready to fight their way out of the Shadow Academy.
A gleaming Imperial shuttle of unusual design sat in the middle of the brightly lit landing pad, still going through its shutdown procedures. Other TIE fighters and Skipray blastboats stood locked down and in various stages of maintenance. The alarms continued their deafening racket.