Jacen saw movement in the shuttle and frantically gestured for the others to duck down, just in time to see two figures emerge from the entry ramp. One of the figures crouched and drew a lightsaber.
“Uncle Luke!” Jaina cried, springing to her feet.
The second figure, a fierce-looking girl, whirled, ready to attack. Her braided red-gold hair swept like a burst of flame across her gray eyes.
“And Tenel Ka!” Jacen said. “Hey, am I glad to see you!”
Lowie bellowed a delighted welcome.
“Well, it certainly is a relief to see familiar faces in the midst of all this infernal racket,” Em Teedee said.
“All right, kids,” Luke Skywalker said, “we came to rescue you—but since you managed to get yourselves this far, I guess we’re ready to go. Right now.”
Jaina issued a brisk report. “We managed to shut down the cloaking device, Uncle Luke. Sealed most of the doors on the station. Won’t be many people coming after us, but we should get out of here as soon as we can.”
“How will we get the sealed space doors open again?” Tenel Ka said, looking over her broad shoulders. “It will be difficult to open them without help from someone inside. Is this not a fact?”
Lowie answered her with an extended series of growls and snorts. He waved his lanky arms.
Em Teedee, his chrome back plate still rattling loose behind him, scolded, “No, you cannot do it yourself, Lowbacca. You’re getting delusions of grandeur again. It was I who helped bring down the Shadow Academy’s defenses and … oh—oh dear, what have I done?”
“Maybe I can help,” Jaina said. “Let’s get into the shuttle cockpit. We’ll try it from there.”
Up in the control center for the docking bay, Qorl stood amazed as the unexpected alarms continued.
He watched the three young Jedi Knights rush into the large room below. The Shadow Chaser had just returned from a supply run to Dathomir, and a sandy-haired man emerged with a tough-looking young lady. Qorl recognized her as one of the Jedi students who had worked on his crashed TIE fighter back in the jungle.
As soon as the alarms sounded, Qorl knew that Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca were somehow behind the disturbance. The other Dark Jedi students were pleased to have an opportunity to increase their powers and appreciated their training; but Qorl had been certain these three would cause trouble—especially since Brakiss and Tamith Kai seemed determined to injure or kill them.
Qorl had been gravely disturbed at the supposed duel to the death between the holographically disguised brother and sister. He also knew the dangerous testing routine with flying stones and knives had already been responsible for the deaths of half a dozen promising Shadow Academy trainees.
He didn’t agree with Brakiss’s tactics, but Qorl was just a pilot; no one listened to his point of view, no matter how certain he was. Yet Qorl served his Empire, and he had to do what he knew was right.
He opened the comm channel and gruffly reported. “Master Brakiss, Tamith Kai—anyone who can hear me. The prisoners are attempting to escape. They are currently in the main docking bay. I believe they intend to steal the Shadow Chaser. All of my defenses are down because of computer failure. If you can offer assistance, please come to the main docking bay immediately.”
Tamith Kai’s violet eyes snapped open, and she leaped from her hard, uncomfortable bunk at the first sound of alarm. She came instantly awake, her mind burning with demands to know what was going on. Someone was threatening the Shadow Academy.
The Nightsister threw on her black cloak, which swirled around her with glittering silvery lines, like the trails of stars during a launch into hyperspace. She reached the door to her quarters, but it would not open. She pounded on it, punched the override controls, but the locking mechanisms remained engaged.
“Let me out!” she snarled. Tamith Kai worked the controls once more, again with no success. Her rage built within her. Something was happening, something terrible—and she knew the three kidnapped trainees were behind it all! They had caused more trouble than they were worth. The Shadow Academy could find so many other willing trainees in all the worlds of the galaxy that regardless of the talent of these three, their potential for disaster was too great.
She would destroy them once and for all, and then the Shadow Academy could settle back into its smooth, regular routine, with Tamith Kai dominating and Brakiss running the details. Then she could be happy again.
Her fingers coiled, and a smoky black electricity curled between them. “Out!” she roared. “I must get out!” Tamith Kai slashed with both of her hands in an opening gesture as she cried her command.
With an explosion of power, the doors bent backward, folding down in a burst of smoke and sparks from the sheared-off wiring in the controls. Then using her bare hands, she tore one of the heavy metal plates completely out of its tracks and tossed it with a loud clonngg! onto the floor. Tamith Kai stormed out, her eyes shimmering like violet lava.
Qorl’s message came over the hall comm systems, and Tamith Kai did not let her anger slacken for an instant. The docking bay. She strode forward at high speed.
While Jacen, Jaina, and Lowie scrambled aboard the Shadow Chaser, Luke remained outside with Tenel Ka. He glanced back and shouted to the twins. “I need to know about this place. There’s something familiar and … very wrong here.”
“Yes,” Jaina said. “Uncle Luke, the person running the Shadow Academy is—”
But Luke had become distracted—fascinated, really. He suddenly stood up straighter, his eyebrows drawing together. “Wait,” he said. “I sense something. A presence I haven’t felt in a long time.”
He walked slowly across the bay and drew his lightsaber again, feeling a storm in the Force, a deadly conflict. As if in a trance, Luke strode toward one of the sealed red doors that led deeper into the academy station.
“Hey, Uncle Luke!” Jacen cried, but Luke held up a hand for the boy to wait.
They needed to escape soon—it was their only chance. They had to seize the moment. But Luke also had to see, had to know. Behind him, he heard the weapons systems of the Shadow Chaser powering up. The ship’s external laser cannon turrets raised and locked into firing position.
When the red door slid open ahead of him, Luke Skywalker stood transfixed. He stared at the sculpture-handsome face of his former student.
“Brakiss!” he whispered in a voice that carried across the docking bay, even above the chaos of shrieking alarms.
Brakiss stood where he was with a faint smile. “Ah, Master Skywalker. So good of you to come. I thought I sensed you here on my station. Are you impressed at how well I have done for myself?”
Luke held his lightsaber out in front of him, but Brakiss remained outside in the corridor and did not step across the threshold.
“Oh, come now,” Brakiss said with a dismissive wave, “if you intended to kill me, you should have done it when I was a weak trainee. You knew I was an Imperial agent even then.”
“I wanted to give you the chance to save yourself,” Luke said.
“Always the optimist,” Brakiss replied in an airy tone.
Luke felt cold inside. He didn’t want to fight Brakiss, especially not now. They had little time. But didn’t he have to confront his former student somehow—resolve their conflict?
They had to go now. He needed to escape with the kids before the Shadow Academy managed to get its defenses back on-line again.
Brakiss held out his soft, empty hands. “Come and get me, Master Skywalker—or are you a coward? Would your precious light side allow you to attack an unarmed man?”