Dark Apprentice

by Kevin J. Anderson

  into our primary hyperdrive reactors." He paused as if gathering courage,

  but

  his close-cropped blond hair showed not a glimmer of sweat. "The Basilisk is

  ready whenever you give the word, Admiral."

  "Thank you, Captain. History will remember your sacrifice--I swear it."

  She turned to the rest of her crew and switched on the intraship comm

  system. Her clipped voice rang throughout the Gorgon. "All hands, battle

  stations! Prepare to begin our run. We will destroy Coruscant and strike a

  death blow to the heart of the Rebellion."

  Kyp Durron piloted the Sun Crusher to the core of the Cauldron Nebula,

  where Exar Kun had told him Admiral Daala's fleet lay in wait.

  The controls of the Sun Crusher felt cool and familiar as he sat forward

  in the hard, uncomfortable pilot seat, looking through the segmented

  viewpanels. He had helped fly the superweapon during the escape from Maw

  Installation with Han Solo.

  During that battle they had taken out one of Daala's Star Destroyers. Now

  he would use the Sun Crusher to obliterate the rest of her fleet.

  Igniting an entire nebula seemed like an excessive blow to squash an

  Imperial insect, but Kyp appreciated the irony of destroying them with their

  own weapons. And it would signal to the rest of the fragmented Empire what

  was

  about to befall them as Kyp continued his purge.

  The Sun Crusher's sensor panels became useless in the ionized discharge

  from the knot of blue-giant stars that illuminated the Cauldron Nebula. The

  front viewscreens dimmed to filter out the blazing light.

  Kyp stretched out with the Force, dropping his inhibitions and letting

  the power burst from him like compressed gas. After the effort of yanking

  the

  Sun Crusher from the core of Yavin, finding a few Star Destroyers seemed a

  simple exercise.

  After only a moment he sensed the arrowhead-shaped silhouettes of two

  Imperial battleships.

  He piloted the Sun Crusher toward the bloated super-giants at the heart

  of the nebula. The titanic blue stars were huge, and young, and ripe for

  destruction. On a cosmic timescale they would burn hot, but briefly, ending

  their lives in supernova explosions that would send shock waves through an

  entire region of the galaxy.

  With the Sun Crusher, though, Kyp could ignite the supernovas now, rather

  than in a hundred thousand years.

  He stared across the soothing rainbow sea of gas and thought of the

  splashed-color sunsets on his colony world of Deyer, the placid terraformed

  lakes around the peaceful raft towns where he and his brother Zeth had

  played.

  But the Empire had broken into Kyp's home and taken him and his family

  away--

  without warning.

  Years ago the Death Star had approached the quiet and pristine planet of

  Alderaan and had blown it to pieces with its planet-destroying superlaser--

  without warning.

  Admiral Daala had captured Kyp and Han and Chewbacca after they had

  passed through the black-hole maze; but because Kyp had possessed no

  "worthwhile" information for her, she had sentenced him to death.

  Daala deserved no warning. None at all.

  Kyp increased the radiation shields on the Sun Crusher and approached the

  mammoth blue-giant stars, seething in their ocean of star material. He

  powered

  up the targeting display in front of him.

  A recessed section of the control panel slid aside. A screen popped up,

  displaying a diagram of closely orbiting spheres. Seven enormous stars

  crowded

  in the middle of the nebula, circling in complex orbits as they stole gas

  from

  each other. Their intense radiation shone through the scattered hydrogen,

  oxygen, and neon clouds.

  Kyp's face was a grim mask as he flicked a row of red activator switches.

  He knew exactly how the Sun Crusher worked; he had stolen those memories

  from

  Qwi Xux.

  Warning beacons flashed across the command-system panels, and Kyp

  confirmed his intentions to the onboard computer. The torus-shaped generator

  at the long end of the Sun Crusher powered up, crackling with blue plasma.

  Kyp remembered the New Republic engineers attempting to determine how the

  superweapon worked, how they had panicked at the sight of a simple message

  cylinder. The resonance torpedoes that triggered stellar explosions were

  dense

  packets of energy, programmed and modulated to make the core of a star

  unstable. The torpedoes could initiate a collapse and rebound of the outer

  layers of star material, unleashing a tremendously violent explosion that

  would rip a star apart.

  Kyp targeted the cluster of blue-giant stars. He did not hesitate. He

  knew in his heart what he had to do.

  He pushed the activation buttons. The Sun Crusher shuddered as the

  superweapon launched seven high-power resonance torpedoes.

  Against the muted swirls of the Cauldron Nebula, he saw sizzling ovoid

  shapes of electric green, white, and yellow fire. The energy torpedoes

  streaked out, plunging into the boiling surfaces of the giant stars.

  Kyp dimmed the segmented viewport and fixed his gaze on the blue giants.

  The cluster would explode simultaneously, and the shock waves would ignite

  vast oceans of nebular material in a galactic wildfire. It would be a

  perfectly clear signal to the remnants of the Empire.

  But it would take hours for the torpedoes to tunnel to the stellar cores

  and set up the chain reaction. The wave of destruction would boil up from

  the

  depths of the stars until a flash of incredible force spewed brilliant

  light,

  high-energy radiation, and star matter into the Cauldron. The entire sector

  would become an inferno.

  Kyp felt a cold fist clench inside his stomach. He could not turn back

  now. Once launched, the resonance torpedoes were irrevocable. These seven

  stars were doomed to explode in a few hours.

  He pulled away at a leisurely pace, killing time. The Sun Crusher was so

  small that few sensor systems could detect it, especially within the

  electromagnetic chaos of the Cauldron Nebula. The weapon was designed to

  flit

  into a system, drop its torpedo into a star, and vanish without a battle,

  without loss of ordnance or personnel. A simple first--and final--strike.

  Admiral Daala would never detect his presence.

  Kyp's gaze wandered back to the chronometer, impatient to watch Daala's

  ships being wiped out in the murderous waves ripping through the nebula. He

  had the most powerful weapon ever invented, and he had the powers of the

  Sith

  that Exar Kun had shown him.

  Where others had failed against the Empire, Kyp Durron would succeed.

  Completely.

  As he drifted away from the blue-giant cluster, he noted that only about

  an hour remained before the massive explosions would begin. The waiting

  seemed

  to go on forever. He sent out his thoughts again, wishing he could taunt

  Daala.

  Then, unexpectedly, her Star Destroyers began to move. The Basilisk and

  the Gorgon
powered up their sublight engines and started a slow drift,

  aligning themselves to a hyperspace path, as if they were ready to launch

  another attack.

  Kyp felt a flame of anger sear through him. "No--she can't leave now!"

  He could not go back and stop the explosion of the core stars. Daala had

  to stay where she would be trapped!

  Kyp slapped at the Sun Crusher's weapon-control systems, powering up the

  defensive laser cannons mounted at sharp angles on the weapon. Then he shot

  forward at full thrust.

  When he and Han had first escaped from the Maw cluster, Daala had thrown

  all of her fighters at him in a desperate attempt to recapture the Sun

  Crusher.

  Kyp figured it would take little more than a few potshots to give her the

  incentive to stay around.

  Admiral Daala raised her right hand, looking at the navigator. "Prepare

  to engage hyperdrive," she said.

  "Admiral!" the lieutenant at the sensor station cried. "I've detected an

  intruder!"

  A tiny ship streaked across the bow of the Gorgon, blasting at them with

  puny laser strikes.

  "What?" Daala said, turning. "Viewscreen," she called, "Enhance."

  A shimmering image of Captain Mullinore from the Basilisk appeared at the

  comm station beside her. "Admiral, we have just detected the Sun Crusher,"

  he

  said. "Shall we engage?"

  "The Sun Crusher!" Daala took a second to accept the information. She

  could not answer before the small ship flitted in front of the Gorgon's

  bridge

  tower again, blasting at the turbolaser batteries. She instantly recognized

  the thorn-shaped ship, the tiny superweapon bristling with defensive laser

  turrets. But the Sun Crusher's lasers had too little power to cause damage

  to

  a Star Destroyer.

  "Launch two TIE squadrons," Daala said, feeling a new excitement. "I want

  the Sun Crusher recaptured. This changes everything in our strategy against

  the New Republic."

  The stormtroopers, already keyed up from a day's worth of red-alert

  status, swarmed across the decks. Moments later the bottom bay of the Gorgon

  opened and spewed out a hundred plane-winged TIE fighters soaring through

  the

  curling gas of the nebula.

  Daala watched the small battle unfold. The Sun Crusher had been designed

  to be extremely swift and maneuverable. With its indestructible quantum

  armor,

  the superweapon seemed to laugh at the attack she sent against it. It was

  only

  a matter of time, though.

  "But why does he attack us at all?" Daala said, tapping black-gloved

  fingers on the bridge railing. "Something's wrong here. He provoked us, but

  he

  has no way of causing us damage. Why did he call attention to himself," she

  mused, "and how did he find us here?"

  Commander Kratas answered her, though she had been muttering to herself.

  "I can't speculate on that, Admiral."

  "Bring the Star Destroyers about," she said. "Lock a tractor beam on the

  Sun Crusher next time it passes."

  "The Sun Crusher's pilot is maneuvering at speeds much too high for us to

  be certain of a firm lock," Kratas said.

  Daala glared at him. "Does that mean you're unable to try?"

  "No, Admiral." Kratas turned and clapped his hands, directing the

  tactical officers on the bridge. "You heard the Admiral! Set to it

  immediately."

  "Admiral, the Sun Crusher is signaling us," the comm officer said.

  "Voice-only transmission."

  Daala whirled. "Put the pilot on."

  With a crackle the thin voice of a mere boy echoed through the Gorgon's

  command center. "Admiral Daala, I'm Kyp Durron--remember me? I hope so. You

  put me under a death sentence. That made quite an impression on me. I hope

  it

  made some sort of impression on you."

  Daala recalled the wiry, dark-haired youth who had been taken prisoner

  along with the Rebels who had blundered into the Maw Installation. She

  motioned for the comm officer to open a channel.

  "Kyp Durron, if you surrender immediately and deliver the Sun Crusher

  intact, we will take you to the planet of your choice. You can be free.

  Don't

  be foolish."

  "Not a chance, Admiral." Kyp laughed at her. "I'm thumbing my nose at

  your supposed Imperial superiority. I'll take my chances." He cut off the

  transmission and streaked by again, firing darts of laser energy that

  bounced

  harmlessly off the shielded hull of the Star Destroyer.

  "Tractor-beam lock--was the tactical officer said, his... lost it."

  "Admiral!" the sensor chief broke in, his voice filled with urgency. "I'm

  picking up unusual readings from the star cluster. The blue giants are

  fluctuating, all seven of them, I've never seen anything like--was

  Daala froze. Her mouth dropped open in horror as she suddenly realized

  the terrible plan this... this boy had put into effect against her fleet.

  "Full about!" she shouted. "One hundred eighty degrees, maximum speed.

  Get out of the nebula, now!"

  "But, Admiral--his" Commander Kratas said.

  "He's used the Sun Crusher!" she screamed. "The stars are going to

  explode! He's just trying to stall us here so we'll be trapped."

  Kratas scrambled to the navigation station himself. The Gorgon lurched as

  the sublight engines kicked in, spinning the enormous Star Destroyer about.

  "We no longer have our navicomputer lock on Coruscant," the navigation

  officer said. "When we turned to strike at the Sun Crusher, we lost our

  alignment."

  "Get us out of here now," Daala said. "Any vector! Inform the Basilisk."

  The sublight engines powered up, blasting as they lumbered away from the

  center of the nebula, picking up speed. The hyperdrive engines were primed,

  gathering power. The Star Destroyers began to move away--

  Then all the stars exploded.

  Kyp Durron watched the Star Destroyers wheel about and flee like wounded

  banthas.

  "You can't get away fast enough." He smiled. "Not fast enough."

  The Gorgon and the Basilisk began to heave themselves through the nebula

  at top speed, abandoning scores of TIE fighters. The small Imperial fighters

  veered off in a panic when their mother ships suddenly turned to run.

  Kyp ignored the rest of the TIE fighters and punched his engines to twice

  the Sun Crusher's maximum-rated capacity, shooting straight up and out the

  plane of the nebular cloud.

  When the cluster of blue giants detonated, concentric shock waves of

  blinding light and searing radiation blasted outward like a cosmic

  hurricane.

  The Gorgon had managed to pull two ship lengths ahead of the Basilisk.

  Hauling on the controls, Kyp continued the Sun Crusher's race upward,

  confident that the quantum armor would protect him from the worst. The

  incredible surge of energy from the supernovas darkened his viewports to

  near

  opacity.

  Curtains of fire overtook the Basilisk, washing over the Star Destroyer

  and igniting it like another tiny nova erupting in the nebula, as the

  firestorm front swept on.

&n
bsp; The viewscreen blackened, but where the Gorgon had been Kyp saw another

  flash--and then the firestorm obliterated all detail.

  After his screens opaqued completely, Kyp used the onboard navicomputer

  to set a new course. This was just the beginning.

  Leaving the galactic inferno behind him, and awed by the power of the Sun

  Crusher, Kyp moved off to seek out those remaining worlds that still swore

  allegiance to the Empire.

  Now, without doubt, he had all the power he needed.

  With the morn+ coolness of Yavin 4, Ambassador Cilghal rose in her

  austere quarters and basked in the shadowy dampness of the stone temple.

  She had been at the Jedi praxeum for only a few days, but already she

  felt as if the whole universe had opened for her. Master Skywalker's

  exercises

  in attuning her mind to the Force had shown her how to turn her gaze in a

  new

  direction, to see things in full view that she had previously only glimpsed

  out of the corners of her eyes. He had given her a nudge down a long, smooth

  slope of discovery; the more she learned, the easier it was to learn more.

  She splashed tepid water across her face, moistening her rubbery skin,

  scrubbing the delicate tendrils that hung beneath her slit of a mouth.

  Though

  the air of the jungle moon was thick with humidity, she still felt more

  comfortable when she could keep her exposed skin moist.

  Cilghal left her quarters and moved to join the dozen other Jedi

  candidates in the dining hall, where each would consume a small breakfast of

  fruits or meats compatible with his or her biochemistry.

  Dorsk 81 sat at a table contemplating colored rectangles of processed

  nutrients. Because he had lived for so long on a self-contained,

  environmentally controlled world, the cloned Jedi trainee could not digest

  foods that had not been heavily processed.

  The gaunt, hardened Jedi Kam Solusar attempted to talk to wild-haired

  Streen, who kept flicking his gaze from side to side as if distracted.

  The rest of the Jedi trainees sat by themselves or in small groups,

  talking uneasily. Cilghal did not see Master Skywalker among them. He was

  usually the first to enter the dining hall, waiting for his students to join

  him. The other Jedi trainees seemed disconcerted by the change of routine.

  Cilghal worked the food-processing unit to prepare a breakfast of diced