“I’ll use every resource at my disposal, Mistress Jaina,” Em Teedee said. “You may rely on me to do everything within my power to see that—”
“Good,” Jaina cut in. “Get right on it. Lowie and I will work on the antenna dish and get the ship ready to fly again—if we can. Jacen, you and Tenel Ka go outside and see if you can get enough of that blockage cleared so we can fly the Rock Dragon out of here. Moving a little mountain of rock shouldn’t be too hard if you two work together.”
Jacen groaned, but Tenel Ka gripped his shoulder. “We will do whatever is necessary to get the job done. If Boba Fett believes us to be permanently trapped, I will be pleased to prove him wrong.”
“He probably doesn’t know we can use the Force,” Jacen pointed out. “It won’t be much harder for us than helping Uncle Luke clear rubble at the Great Temple. Of course, we won’t have all the other Jedi students to help….”
“We will clear the way,” Tenel Ka said confidently. “Our muscles can do much of the work. The Force will do the rest.”
Jacen and Tenel Ka hastily put on their breathing masks and tough, flexible gloves. Full of determination, they stepped out into the thin, cold atmosphere of the darkened cave. But when they turned on their glowrods and approached the mounded blockage, Jacen’s spirits fell. The central core of the debris where Boba Fett had fired his blaster to reseal the cave was fused into a solid rocky mass.
“Uh-oh,” he said.
Tenel Ka gestured with her glowrod to the side of the cave-in, where the rock had fallen in easily manageable chunks and pebbles. Jacen moved over to the pile and experimentally hefted a chunk of rock twice the size of his head. In the low gravity, it seemed to weigh no more than a gort-feather pillow. Tenel Ka picked up a similar-sized rock with her one hand and tossed it aside with no problem.
Next they experimented with using the Force to nudge aside larger pieces of rock while shoving away mounds of loose pebbles with their gloved hands. Though the air in the cave was as frigid as a night on Hoth, they both soon worked up a sweat.
Jacen grinned at Tenel Ka, feeling a bit silly for enjoying himself so much—but he did like to work with the warrior girl from Dathomir. He found it inexplicably satisfying to be struggling with his friends to solve a problem. They would get themselves out of this mess—he had no doubt of that.
Jacen even started trying to concoct a joke: How many Jedi does it take to clear an asteroid cave-in? He might have to wait until after they got back home, he supposed, to find the right punch line.
When they had opened an area a meter deep beside the fused stone core, Tenel Ka climbed atop the rubble and withdrew her rancor-tooth lightsaber. Then, igniting the brilliant turquoise blade, she used it like a battle-ax to hack off a massive wedge of rock. Jacen caught the slab with the Force and diverted it quickly to one side while Tenel Ka sliced off another wedge, as if she were manipulating a machete to chop her way through a dense jungle.
She gave Jacen an approving nod, and he knew he had been right: they would get out of this just fine.
“Thanks, Lowie,” Jaina said, accepting the mangled wreckage of what had once been their transmitter dish. The Wookiee had just dismantled it from the battered roof of the Rock Dragon, then hauled it inside the cockpit where Jaina could work on it. Parts of the dish were missing entirely, pulverized in the avalanche, but more than half of the contraption had survived—in some form. Fixing it would be the difficult part.
“I’ll see what I can do with this. Navigation systems, life support, and hyperdrive all checked out fine. I think I’ve got the engine fixed again. Can you run a diagnostic on all our exhaust ports and make sure they’re not clogged with debris?”
Lowie roared his agreement. “Please be careful, Master Lowbacca,” Em Teedee called from the control console. “Did you know that twenty-one percent of all spaceport accidents occur while attempting to clear blockage to exhaust ports?”
Lowie grumbled reassuringly and headed toward the rear of the ship.
Kneeling down, Jaina ran a grim eye over the twisted remains of the Rock Dragon’s transmitter dish. “I’m not even sure there’s enough here left to salvage.” She sighed.
“Perhaps you might consider fashioning a smaller transmitter from the remains of the old one,” Em Teedee said.
Jaina bit her lower lip and looked dubiously at the mangled components. “I’m pretty sure I can do that,” she said. “The question is, will it still be strong enough to send a signal? We have to warn Dad about the ambush.”
“I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, Mistress Jaina,” Em Teedee said encouragingly.
“Yeah?” Jaina sighed again. “Well, then, don’t complain if I have to disassemble you for spare parts.”
“I should hope that I could be of greater use to you as one complete unit,” the little droid said. “Actually, because my own modest transmitter is fully integrated, I doubt—”
“That’s it!” Jaina said, slapping her palm to her forehead. “The modular transmitter Dad brought me. It’s old, but I just may be able to rig something.” She grinned at Em Teedee. “Don’t worry, Quicksilver, your parts are safe. I knew we kept you around for a good reason.”
19
With the stones and debris finally cleared from the mouth of the cave, and knowing that Boba Fett lurked somewhere out in the rubble field, waiting for Han Solo, the young Jedi Knights prepared the Rock Dragon for a last desperate dash toward freedom.
Jaina sat in the pilot’s seat, frowning and tense as she checked the control readouts for the tenth time.
“What we really need is a Mon Calamari star cruiser for what we’re about to do,” Jacen said, looking over at his sister.
“This is a fact,” Tenel Ka said, “but Master Skywalker taught us that a Jedi makes use of the skills she possesses—not the resources she wishes she had.”
“Well, here we go.” Jaina fired up the Rock Dragon’s repulsorjets, and the battered ship rose, blasting rock dust from the floor and walls. More pebbles trickled down, bouncing and sliding as the engine vibrations shook the asteroid. “Hang on.”
“Be careful,” Jacen said. “That hole we carved isn’t going to be very stable. It could collapse at any minute.”
Jaina shrugged. “So there’s no point in sticking around any longer.” She looked over at the Wookiee in the copilot’s seat. “Punch it, Lowie.”
Taking a deep breath, Jacen readied himself at the comm system, prepared to send his warning message the moment they burst free from the shielding rock walls. Once they were out of the cavern, even their weak jury-rigged transmitter should send a discernible signal. He knew their father might already be on his way to rescue them—and that Boba Fett would be waiting to ambush the Millennium Falcon.
With its meager engine power and its sublight drives strained to the maximums, the Rock Dragon shot through the broken opening. Perspiration rolling down her face, Jaina gripped the controls, entirely focused in her concentration. They pulled free of the asteroid’s weak gravity and launched themselves headlong into space.
“Now, Jacen,” she said through gritted teeth. “Send the signal!”
Jacen flicked on the comm system, transmitting on all bands. “Warning to incoming craft! This is Jacen Solo on the Rock Dragon. The bounty hunter Boba Fett is waiting in ambush. He has attacked us and will shoot down anyone who comes into the Alderaan rubble field. We are in desperate need of assistance—but beware of traps.”
“Our enemy has found us,” Tenel Ka announced.
Like a combat arachnid waiting for prey, Boba Fett’s angular ship spun out from where it had been hiding in the eclipsing shadow of another asteroid. The Slave IV rocketed after them. The bounty hunter again made no attempt at communication, but Jacen could sense the danger.