“Well, in that case,” Jacen said, “I’ll race you all to those hills!”
Everyone laughed and dove for their turbo-skis.
6
At the appointed hour that evening, Zekk arrived at the enormous palace and was ushered inside. New Republic guards checked his name against the approved-visitor list and let him proceed into the elegant corridors, with their high vaulted ceilings. Although he knew his way to Jacen and Jaina’s quarters, the uniformed soldiers insisted on “escorting” him, which Zekk found somewhat intimidating.
His new formal clothes were stiff and exceedingly uncomfortable, but he knew that this dinner was an important occasion. He silently vowed not to embarrass anyone. He especially didn’t want to disappoint the twins.
Before old Peckhum had departed for his lonely mirror-station duties, he’d helped Zekk select a few items of formal clothing, and the young man had also gone out trading, bartering some of his best trinkets and artifacts for a particularly slick jacket. Now he felt like a dandy as he rode the turbolift up to the higher levels and wound his way through the maze of corridors to the Chief of States quarters.
The protocol droid See-Threepio met Zekk at the doorway and hustled him inside, dismissing the soldier escort. “Ah, there you are, young Master Zekk. We must hurry—you’re late! We have preparations to make.”
Zekk tugged at his uncomfortable formal suit. “What do you mean ‘preparations’? I’m all ready, I’m dressed … what more could you want?”
Threepio tsked through his mouth speaker and brushed the front of Zekk’s shirt. “Dear me. These clothes are indeed fine and they are most … interesting. According to my files they were quite fashionable some decades ago. Quite an historical find, I should say.”
Zekk felt a stab of disappointment. He had worked so hard, doing his absolute best to prepare for this special event—and in the space of a few seconds the prissy droid had dismissed all of his efforts.
Leia Organa Solo hurried out of the back room, her dark eyes widening as she saw him. “Oh … uh, hello Zekk. Glad you could make it.” Her gaze seemed to dissect Zekk; he clenched his teeth and tried not to show any embarrassment, though he was sure his cheeks were flushed crimson. His fine suit now seemed as ridiculous to him as a clown’s costume.
“I hope I’m not being too much of bother,” he stammered. “I didn’t mean for Jaina and Jacen to invite me—”
“Don’t worry about it,” Leia said quickly and smiled. “The ambassador from Karnak Alpha has brought her own brood of children. So please relax. Just do the best you can.”
Threepio returned with a kit of grooming implements. “First, we’ll comb your hair, young Master Zekk. Everything must be presentable. This is a matter of diplomatic pride for the New Republic, though I do wish I could have located those old files about the customs on Karnak Alpha. The place seems to have been forgotten by my protocol programmers.” He fussed over Zekk’s hair. “Dear me, you could certainly use a trim! Hmmmm, I wonder if we have time …”
Jaina and Jacen came out to greet their friend as he stood soundlessly enduring the golden droid’s overattentive ministrations. Jacen’s hair seemed awkwardly straight, his face scrubbed so clean that Zekk barely recognized the boy. “Hello, Zekk!” Jaina cried with sincere delight, but when she noticed his outfit she covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. He felt his cheeks burning with fresh shame.
When Zekk struggled against the buzzing device, Threepio said sternly, “I am a protocol droid, you know, fully trained in grooming techniques.” Zekk didn’t argue, but winced as Threepio cleared a snag in his dark hair.
“I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” Zekk said. “I don’t know anything about diplomacy. I don’t know any manners or etiquette.”
Jaina laughed. “That’s not important. Just use your common sense and watch what the rest of us do. It’s a big diplomatic banquet, and you have to follow all sorts of boring ceremonies—but the food’s good. You’ll enjoy it.”
Zekk didn’t point out that it was easy for Jaina to say such things, since she had been brought up in this high political society and trained in the proper responses for so many years that such actions were second nature to her. Zekk, though, had no such instruction. This whole dinner was going to be a disaster, he just knew it.
See-Threepio finally gave up on his attempts to comb out Zekk’s hair and shook his gleaming head in exasperation. “Oh, dear. I have a bad feeling about this,” he sighed. Zekk couldn’t argue with him.
Tenel Ka followed the group as they filed toward the formal dining chamber, conscious of her every movement. This was an important diplomatic function, and she had been well tutored by her harsh grandmother in the plush courts of the Hapes Cluster. Tenel Ka was a royal princess, after all, the heir apparent to an entire cluster; but she avoided such nonsense and spent as much as time as possible training instead on her mother’s austere world of Dathomir. Tenel Ka’s Hapan grandmother strongly disapproved of the path that the princess had chosen to follow, but Tenel Ka had a mind of her own—as she frequently demonstrated.
Now she strode behind Jacen, Jaina, and Zekk, walking next to Lowbacca and the silent younger boy Anakin, as they hurried to the dining chamber. She wore a short, tight-fitting sheath of colorful reptilian hides, freshly oiled and polished so that they gleamed with her every movement. Her muscular arms and legs were bare, but she wore a flowing cape of deep forest green over her shoulders.
Tenel Ka had spent many months at the Jedi academy in the primitive jungles of Yavin 4, and before that she had lived in the cliff cities of the Singing Mountain Clan. It had been a long time since she’d been spoiled with luxuries, but she viewed the formal evening meal with the Karnak ambassador as another challenge to face.
Lowbacca had been shampooed and dried, his fur neatly combed so that he seemed much thinner than usual without his swirling hair sticking out in all directions. The black streak that swept back above his eyebrow had been slicked down, giving him a dashing appearance … for a Wookiee.
See-Threepio strutted ahead of Leia and Han as if he were an escort. New Republic guards stood beside the entrance to the great dining hall and swung the doors wide as they approached. Clasping Han Solo’s arm, Leia walked in, regal in her fine white robes. Though small of stature, the Chief of State seemed full of energy and confidence, like a battery overcharged with power. Tenel Ka admired her.
Their timing was exactly right. As they passed into the dining hall from one end, the opposite entrance opened, and the ambassador from Karnak Alpha entered, followed by her train of eight children.
The ambassador was a haystack of tan hair, a mound of fur that grew so long that it obscured every other feature of her body. Not even the ambassador’s eyes were visible peeping out from between the strands, as she scuttled forward on feet also hidden by her flowing tresses. The ambassador took her place at the head of the table beside the seat reserved for the Chief of State. Leia sat down, with her husband next to her.
The ambassador’s children, all eight of them, were miniature versions of her, heaps of hair that bustled to their seats. The girls’ fur was knotted into colorful ribbons, while the boys jingled with bells tied to strands of hair. All of them seemed well-groomed and impeccably behaved as they took their seats along one side of the table.
Tenel Ka was glad she had thought to braid colorful ribbons into her own red-gold hair. She had seen natives of Karnak Alpha during her time at the royal court of Hapes. The hairy creatures were shy and had some unusual customs, but they were relatively easygoing.
Tenel Ka sat beside Lowbacca, while Jacen and Jaina took their dark-haired friend Zekk to the front end of the long polished table. Their little brother Anakin, with his eerie ice-blue eyes, seemed content to sit anywhere they directed him, quietly waiting for his place between Lowbacca and Jacen.