Dark Apprentice

by Kevin J. Anderson

  if he knew he didn't have much time. "Before I was liberated by the Rebel

  Alliance, I was Moff Tarkin's indentured assistant. He took great pleasure

  in

  telling me exactly how he was going to enslave other worlds. By observing

  him

  I learned the fundamentals of space-warfare tactics, including Tarkin's own

  favorite strategies."

  He pointed a flipper-hand into the images of the two Star Destroyers.

  "Tarkin is dead, but I recognize this trick. I know what the Imperial

  commander plans to do. Do we have a sensor network on the far side of the

  moon?"

  "No, Admiral," the city commander said. "We had considered it years ago

  but--was

  "I didn't think so," Ackbar said. "So we're blind there, correct?"

  "Correct."

  "What are you getting at, Admiral?" Leia said.

  "There's a third Star Destroyer hiding behind our moon."

  When Ackbar said that, half of the chattering voices in the room fell

  silent. The others turned toward him in amazement. "What proof do you have?"

  Leia tried to use her fledgling powers with the Force to sense the hidden

  enemy ship, but either it was too distant, or she was not skilled enough...

  or

  it wasn't there.

  "The actions of the Imperial commander tell me all I need," Ackbar said.

  "Their main target is indeed the shipyards. Moments after these two Star

  Destroyers came out of hyperspace, a third also emerged, concealed in the

  shadow of our moon. The vanguard attack is designed to lure us away from the

  shipyards, tricking us into throwing our entire defenses against a feint.

  When

  the third Star Destroyer comes in at full sublight speed, the shipyards will

  be helpless. With one run the third Star Destroyer can obliterate our

  starship

  assembly facilities with virtually no losses of its own."

  "But, Admiral," the city commander said, "why did you just withdraw all

  of our forces from the shipyards?"

  Ackbar nodded. "Because you are going to give me remote command of that

  ship." He indicated the huge spacedock hangar where the skeletal hull of the

  new battle cruiser Startide hung in orbit.

  "But, sir, none of the Startide's weapons are functional."

  "But its engines work, if I am not mistaken?"

  "Yes," the city commander said, "we tested the sublight engines only last

  week. The hyperdrive reactor core has been installed, but we have never

  taken

  the ship into hyperspace."

  "Not necessary," Ackbar said. "Have all the construction engineers been

  evacuated?"

  "Yes, at first sign of the attack."

  "Then give me remote operations."

  "Admiral--was the city commander said tentatively, then punched in a

  command-code sequence. "If it were anyone other than you..."

  Taking control, Ackbar stepped into the field where virtual images were

  projected with a parallax designed for wide-set telescopic eyes.

  The half-constructed ship powered up its engines and locked into drone

  mode. With an inaudible roar of massive sublight engines the unarmed

  battleship crawled away from the orbital shipyards, picking up speed as it

  ascended from the planet's gravity well. The engines were powerful enough to

  haul along the entire connected framework of the spacedock.

  Ackbar didn't mind. The more mass, the better.

  Leia bit her lip as the echoes of attack thundered from above, as the

  external imagers showed the damage to Foamwander's outer shell, as another

  wave of TIE fighters swooped down to scorch any exposed surface.

  Cilghal seemed to have gone into a kind of a trance. Leia wondered if the

  shock had numbed her. The ambassador stood before the orbital images of

  swarming fighters, both the B-wing defenders and TIE attackers. She reached

  out with her fingers, touching seemingly random blips of light.

  "This one, now this one... now this one," she said. Barely a moment after

  she touched each one, the screen flared bright, marking the destruction of

  the

  indicated ships.

  Leia was amazed, unable to believe that Cilghal could pick them so

  accurately. But with the fledgling abilities Luke had taught her, Leia could

  feel a tug in the female ambassador, an instinctive working of the Force.

  She

  asked, already suspecting the answer, "How are you doing that?"

  "Just like with the school of fish," Cilghal said quietly. "It's only a

  trick--but I wish I could get in contact with our fighters. This one, this

  one!" With a long finger she traced one of the B-wing fighters that seemed

  perfectly safe in the midst of its own squadron, but then a damaged TIE

  fighter out of control spiraled through the group of ships and impacted the

  doomed B-wing. Cilghal had done the same thing with the school of fish as

  the

  krakana monster fed.

  The female ambassador looked astonished and stricken. "There's not enough

  time," she said. "I can't figure it out soon enough."

  Despite the fury of the Imperial attack, Leia felt a thread of wonder

  pass through her. Even without further testing, she knew that Cilghal had

  the

  potential to use her powers as a Jedi. Leia would have to send Cilghal to

  Luke's training center on Yavin 4--96 they somehow survived here.

  Ackbar felt as if he were part of the massive derelict ship as he

  controlled it from the core of Foamwander City. He paid no attention to the

  loud status reports and alarms in Central Command. His entire body was an

  extension of the Startide, and he stared through sensor eyes.

  Its engines added velocity to the great hulk. Calamari's moon grew larger

  as he approached it, then began to streak by close to the airless cratered

  surface and out of sensor range to the dark side of the moon. Where the

  third

  Star Destroyer lay in wait.

  Ackbar powered up the Startide's hyperdrive reactors and shut off the

  automatic coolant systems. Alarms ran through his body as the ship's warning

  routines screamed at him. But Ackbar increased the power output, trying to

  hold it in, restraining the seething energy that waited to explode from the

  great uncompleted battleship.

  As he brought the Startide around the curve of the moon, Ackbar saw the

  arrowhead shape of a third Star Destroyer just powering up its weapons

  batteries. "There it is."

  The third Star Destroyer suddenly detected the Mon Calamari battle

  cruiser and began unleashing a flurry of turbolaser bolts--but Ackbar didn't

  care.

  One of the blasts detonated a joint in the spacedock framework

  surrounding the Startide, and a network of girders dropped into space.

  Molten

  droplets flew from the starboard flank where a direct hit vaporized part of

  the hull.

  Ackbar drove on at full speed on his suicide run, heading directly down

  the Star Destroyer's throat. The Imperial ship continued to fire.

  Ackbar released the last safety mechanisms that held the unshielded

  hyperdrive reactor in check. The super-heated energy furnace would reach its

  flash point within seconds.

  He disconnected himself from the command c
onsole and let the laws of

  physics take their course.

  Admiral D aala shouted into the comm system. "Captain Brusc, tell me

  what's going on!"

  The Manticore had just begun its triumphant run to destroy the Calamarian

  shipyards when all havoc broke loose. Alarms interrupted her transmission.

  The captain scrambled and shouted orders. "It's another ship, Admiral!"

  Brusc said, flashing a glance and wanting to bark orders, yet not quite

  daring

  to ignore Daala. "It came out of nowhere. They must have known we were

  here."

  "Impossible," Daala said. "They couldn't have known we were there. We

  left no sensor trace. Ops! Give me the Manticore's tactical sensors."

  On the screen Daala saw her third Star Destroyer and the skeletal

  Calamarian star cruiser. It looked ridiculously cumbersome, dragged back by

  heavy construction frameworks--yet it moved inexorably. Daala understood the

  suicide tactic immediately.

  "Get out of there!"

  The Manticore veered to get out of the Startide's path, but the

  Calamarian cruiser came on too fast. The Manticore's turbolaser batteries

  did

  nothing to slow its approach.

  Daala held her back rigid, forcing herself not to wince. She gripped the

  cold rail at her bridge station. Her knuckles whitened. The plasteel floor

  seemed to drop out from under her. Her dry mouth opened in a wordless shout

  of

  No!

  The Calamarian battleship struck the underbelly of the Manticore. Just

  before the impact, though, the Startide went nova, erupting into blinding

  waves of energy that tore the Manticore apart.

  Captain Brusc's transmission cut off abruptly.

  Daala turned away, gritting her teeth and refusing to let acid tears of

  failure well up in her green eyes. She thought of all the weaponry, all the

  personnel, all the responsibility that had just been destroyed.

  She stared into space, blinded by the brilliant double explosion that

  flowed out behind Calamari's moon, creating an artificial eclipse.

  18

  Kyp Durron felt exhilarated, yet foolish at the same time. The other Jedi

  students had stopped their own exercises and dropped back to watch Kyp at

  work.

  Surrounded by the dense foliage of the jungle, with humid air wrapped

  like sweat around him, Kyp balanced his body. His feet extended straight up

  into the air, his back rigid; he held himself upright with one hand resting

  flat on the rough ground. The heel of his palm sank into the soft dirt.

  Blades

  of sharp grass stuck between his fingers.

  He could balance himself with less difficulty on a more level piece of

  ground--but that would be too easy. His dark hair hung around his face;

  droplets of perspiration ran in tiny trickles along his scalp.

  With his free hand Kyp supported a moss-covered boulder he had uprooted

  from the ground. Clumps of dirt pattered to the grass. He held the rock in

  the

  air with only a small effort, using the Force to do most of the work.

  Artoo-Detoo bleeped in alarm, chittering from high in the branches above.

  Kyp had levitated him up there as a warm-up exercise, and he would get the

  little droid down in good time; for now he maintained his concentration.

  He blocked out his awareness of the other Jedi trainees. He let his eyes

  slit halfway closed as he concentrated and raised a fallen, fungus-shrouded

  tree limb, yanking it from a tangle of blueleaf shrubs and standing it on

  end

  beside him.

  Kyp blew out a long, slow breath and concentrated on keeping every piece

  in its place. The rest of the universe focused around him. Highly attuned,

  he

  felt a vibration in the Force, a ripple of amazement and pride.

  Master Skywalker had come to watch him.

  Kyp knew how to feel the Force, how to use it. It came naturally to him.

  It seemed instinctive, just as navigating the Sun Crusher through the black

  hole cluster had been. He felt that he had been ready for this all his life,

  but he could not see it simply because he had never been shown how to use

  his

  abilities. But now that Master Skywalker had nudged him, the new skill came

  flooding into hm as if a long-closed valve had been twisted open.

  In little more than a week of intensive work, Kyp had surpassed the

  achievements of the other Jedi students. Kyp shut himself off from

  socialization among the trainees. He spoke to few of the others, focusing

  every moment upon honing his Jedi ability, increasing his concentration,

  developing a rapport with the Force. He hounded Master Skywalker to give him

  new tasks, to set him greater challenges so he could continue to learn and

  grow stronger in the Force.

  Now, enclosed by the jungle and observed by other trainees, Kyp did not

  see his exercises as showing off. He didn't care whether Master Skywalker

  watched him or not. He simply meant to push the boundaries of what he could

  do. After he completed one set of exercises, he tried another more difficult

  routine, adding greater challenges. In that way he could continue to

  improve.

  While trapped in the detention levels of the Star Destroyer Gorgon, when

  he had been sentenced to death by Admiral Daala, Kyp had vowed that he would

  never again allow himself to become so helpless. A Jedi was never helpless,

  since the Force came from all living things.

  Still balancing, dark eyes closed, Kyp felt the other creatures in the

  jungle, traced their ripples in the great tapestry of the Force. He smelled

  the plants and flowers and small creatures in the rain forest. He ignored

  the

  tiny gnats swarming around his head and body.

  He felt the tidal vibrations of the gas giant Yavin and its other moons

  as he extended his thoughts outward to space. He felt at peace, a part of

  the

  cosmos. He pondered what difficulties he could add to his balancing act. But

  before he could decide, Kyp sensed Artoo-Detoo being lifted from his perch

  high in the Massassi trees and lowered gently to the ground. The little

  droid

  made relieved beeping sounds.

  Then Kyp felt the mossy boulder invisibly removed from his hand and set

  back in its depression. The rotting branch also drifted down, replaced

  exactly

  in its former place on the mulch of the jungle floor.

  Kyp felt a slash of annoyance at having his exercise forcibly stopped,

  and he opened his eyes to see Master Skywalker grinning proudly at him.

  "Very good, Kyp," Master Skywalker said. "In fact, it's incredible. I'm

  not sure even Obi-Wan or Yoda would know what to do with you."

  Kyp nudged with his levitating skills to flip himself upright so that he

  landed on his feet. Staring into Master Skywalker's eyes, he felt his heart

  pounding with exhilaration, filled with far more energy than he knew how to

  contain.

  He spoke breathlessly, blinking as if he had suddenly opened his eyes

  into the brighter daylight on Yavin 4. "What else can you teach me today,

  Master?" He felt his skin flush. Droplets of sweat trickled from his dark

  hair

  an
d along his cheeks.

  Master Skywalker shook his head. "Nothing more for today, Kyp." The other

  Jedi candidates stood slumped in exhaustion, resting on broken stumps and

  overgrown rocks.

  Kyp tried not to let his disappointment show. "But there is so much more

  to learn," he said.

  "Yes," Master Skywalker answered with a barely contained smile, "and

  patience is one of those things to learn. The ability to do a thing is not

  all

  there is. You must know the thing. You must master every facet of it. You

  must

  understand how it fits with everything else you know. You must possess it

  for

  it to be truly yours."

  Kyp nodded solemnly at the spoken words of wisdom, as Jedi students were

  expected to do. But he promised himself that he would do everything

  necessary

  to make all of these new abilities his.

  Even in the deepest hours of the night, Kyp did not sleep. He had eaten a

  bland but filling meal by himself, then retired to his cool quarters to

  meditate and practice the skills he had already learned.

  As he concentrated, with only a small glowlamp in the corner, he sent his

  mind out to feel between the cracks of all the stone blocks in the Great

  Temple. He followed the life cycles of the strands of moss. He tracked tiny

  arachnids skittering through the corridors and vanishing into dark spaces,

  where his delicate touch could follow them through the blackness into

  theirthe

  hidden homes.

  Kyp felt as if he had plugged into a network of living things that

  expanded his mind and made him feel both insignificant and infinite at the

  same time.

  As Kyp thought and dabbled with his fledgling abilities, he felt a great

  cold rip in the Force, like a black gash opening the structure of the

  universe. He snapped himself back to the present.

  Kyp whirled and saw behind him the looming shadow of a tall cloaked

  figure. Even in the dim room the dark man's silhouette seemed intensely

  black,

  a hole that swallowed up all glimmers of light. Kyp said nothing, but as he

  continued to gaze, he saw the tiny starpoints of distant suns within the

  outline of his mysterious visitor.

  "The Force is strong in you, Kyp Durron," the shadowy figure said.

  Kyp looked up, feeling no fear. He had been imprisoned and sentenced to