Shards of Alderaan

by Kevin J. Anderson

  Tenel Ka asked, her warrior braids rippling in the wind like velvety

  red-gold ribbons.

  Jaina was sure her father and mother would not object to such an

  arrangement.

  After all, Jaina would simply be helping a friend now and then. She

  grinned broadly.

  "I think you've got yourself a crew."

  Accompanying Tenel Ka, Jaina bounded over to where her brother and Lowie

  were already examining the compact vessel.

  "Hey, this isn't a very new ship, Tenel Ka,' Jacen said.

  nnel Ka rapped her fist against a stained spot on the hull with a

  satisfying thud.

  is a fact,' she said.

  "Lowie says the sublight engines need a tune-up," Jacen added.

  "Looks like that comm transmitter's out of alignment, too,' Jaina

  observed.

  "I don't get it,' Jacen said. "Your parents can afford the best that

  credits can buy.

  How come they sent you an old clunker instead of a luxury speeder?"

  Jaina ran a shrewd eye over the craft. "I'm not familiar with this type

  of ship, but III bet she's got it where it counts," she said, "no matter

  what she looks like on the outside."

  "Ah. Aha," Tenel Ka said. "My parents reasoned that it would be unwise

  to call attention to my personal vessel by making it elegant and

  luxurious." A rare smile quirked the corner of Tenel Ka's mouth.

  "Also, I believed Jaina and @wbacca would prefer a ship they could spend

  time tinkering with.Jaina realized that her friend was right.

  She chuckled. "This is a fact."

  The Rock Dragon has significant advantages, too," Tbnel Ka went on.

  "For example, my grandmother helped decide which subsystems to install,

  adding many items no standard ship would carry Also, it displays no

  markings of the Royal House of Hapes, nothing to mark it as a potential

  target."

  "I guess that makes sense. A nondescript shi wouldn't attract attention

  from assassins or any other enemies," Jacen said.

  'Who named it the Rock Dragon, anyway-kind of strange, isn't it?"

  "I named the ship myself. On Hapes, ships are often called 'dragon."

  The term @ dragoncomes from Dathomir, though. It is a chjl&s mckname

  for an animal I once saw there," Ibnel Ka said. "Small, but highly

  dangerous. The creature has rough mottled skin that acts as camouflage

  when it hides in the rocks to guard its nest. A rock dragon eats only

  plants and insects, but if attacked, it defends its nest ferociously and

  stings its enemy. Its poison is strong enough to kill a fall-grown

  rancor."

  Jacen whistled.

  "Good name for a ship," Jaina said. "IRTS take it for a short spin."

  -----------------THE CONTROLS OF the Lightning Rod felt good in his

  hands. As he left Yavin 4

  behind, turning away from the Jedi academy, Zekk knew that he had his

  whole life ahead of him and the whole universe to choose from. . . .

  But he didn't know where to go.

  Peckhum had shown him how to maneuver the battered craft during their

  closeknit days on Coruseant, when the old man had often taken his young

  friend along on supply runs. Back then, with no one but each other to

  rely on, Zekk and Peckhum had been partners in all their grand plans.

  The grizzled trader was independent, bouncing from job to job, trying to

  make ends meet in whatever way he could. Zekk had operated as a

  scavenger in the planetwide city's lower levels, occasionally spending

  time with his unlikely friends Jaina and Jacen Solo.

  Now, though, he had only himself . . .

  and he needed to choose a destination.

  Zekk drifted out of the Yavin system, reveling in his freedom, the

  freedom to sever ties with his troubled past. He could create a new

  life for himself, start over and do things right this time-if only he

  could escape from the shadow-blot that continued to fill him, no matter

  how much light he tried to draw in.

  After hours of aimless cruising, unwilling to dive into hyperspace

  without a preset course, Zekk finally selected a place to go.

  He would go home.

  But not to any of the worlds in the Core Systems, where the Shadow

  Academy and Lord Brakiss had made him an integral part of their struggle

  for a Second Imperium. No, those planets would never be home, no matter

  how much he tried to convince himself otherwise.

  And not back to Coruscant either. That place held too many bad memories

  for him, too much past.

  He wanted to go where he could forget his last few years and start anew

  . . . a place he could still think of as home: the planet Ennth.

  That was where he had come from, where he had spent the first eight

  years of his life, where his parents had died in the recurring disaster

  that struck that world every eight years.

  Zekk had been born on Ennth. Less than a year later, he and his parents

  had moved to one of the crowded and dirty refugee stations in orbit near

  Ennth, as his people waited for the planetary convulsions to subside so

  that the colonists could return and rebuild their ruined cities on the

  scorched ground. Zekk had been only a child when the new

  settlements-ambitious structures and waterways-were erected from

  prefabricated modules.

  The fresh ash that had rained down from erupting volcanoes made Ennt]Ys

  agricultural lands fertile. Civilization on the planet had blossomed

  frantically during those quiet years, like a desperate flower in the

  desert after a rain, pouring its energy into a brief flash of life

  before time and the environment ultimately claimed it.

  Zekk had been nine when the year of disasters returned. A bright and

  promising child, he had been evacuated and sent again to the crowded

  refugee stations, where he was expected to endure a miserable existence

  for many months . . . until the cycle of reconstruction and growth

  could begin all over That time, though, his parents had stayed on the

  surface too long, retnevmg their last meaningless possessions, trying to

  salvage everything they had planted, as well as their furniture and

  mementos. A groundquake had struck unexpectedly. The seismic shock,

  larger than all previous ones, had its epicenter @lyon New Hopetown, the

  village Zekk had helped build, the place a small boy had called home.

  Fissures opened up. Lava spewed forth....

  And no one had survived.

  Orphaned at only nine, his home destroyed, young Zekk had been smart

  enough to realize that he did not want to stay without guardians on a

  world that proved so resistant to human settlement.

  Acting brashly, Zekk had stowed away on one of the supply ships, not

  knowing where he was headed or where his luck would take him.

  Luck. He'd always had a knack for finding things, choosing the right

  path. It had seemed a coincidence back then, but Brakiss had taught

  Zekk that he had an aptitude for using the Force. It had helped Zekk

  escape from Ennth.

  From that point on, he had hopped from one ship to another, scrounging a

  life for himself He had finally hooked up with old Peckhum, who treated

  him with kindness and caring, giving him a chance.

  Now it was tim
e to go home.

  He scoured the Lightning Rod's navicomputer records, projecting

  holographic paths from the generator Jaina had newly repaired, as he

  searched for the proper coordinates. Ennth, by no means a popular

  world, was located on no major trade routes.

  Luckily, Peckhum had several obscure navigational files-mcluchng records

  of the previous evacuation. Zekk was surprised to see that the old man

  had been to Ennth during the initial supply runs, helping,to take people

  off the planet. Peckhum had never told Zekk.... Maybe his old friend

  felt somewhat responsible for not staying to do more for the colonists.

  Zekk punched in the coordinates, anxious to see how much the anguished

  world had changed since he had left it. Eight years had passed.

  The Lightning Rod shot into hyperspace.

  When the planet appeared in front of him, long-forgotten memories

  flashed through Zekk's mind. He sat in the pilot's chair, powering up

  the comm system as the Lightning Rod settled into normal space again and

  approached Ennth.

  The large moon had a pocked and cratered appearance, as if it held many

  mouths full of fangs waiting to devour human settlements on the primary

  world. The moon's path was highly elliptical, oscillating around Ennth

  m an endless planetary dance. Once every eight years the orbit brought

  the two celestial partners so close together that the moon grazed EnntYs

  atmosphere. 'ndal forces and increased gravity cracked the ground,

  sparked volcamc eruptions, and kneaded the worl&s surface, producing

  groundquakes and tidal waves.

  Hurncanes and storms destroyed anything on the exposed ground, while the

  approaching moon npped away portions of the atmosphere, which was

  replenished by the volcanic outgassing from EnntYs interior.

  Now Zekk saw a bustling flotilla in orbit: merchant ships, rescue ships,

  traders, and a motley assortment of ragtag vessels, as well as huge

  cargo haulers that had been stripped of their hyperdrive engines to make

  more room for living quarters inside.

  Refugee stations. Zekk recognized them from his previous unpleasant

  time spent aboard.

  He had come at just the right moment, when people and his homeworld

  needed him the most. The colonists were evacuating Ennth again. This

  could be a way for him to redeem himself, a time to focus only on

  helping others.

  The giant moon hovered close in the sky, hurtling along in its

  disruptive orbit. Zekk shuddered as a half-forgotten fear leaped within

  him. But he drove it back. He would have to rise above his fears if he

  was going to make a difference here.

  The disaster was about to strike again.

  JACEN RUSHED INTO the connnunication center an( ..oo.".ce( aroun( at tie

  mm( boggling display of equipment the New Republic engineers were

  mstalhng. He couldiyt see any cause for an emergency, but Raynar had

  told him he was urgently needed here.

  The young blond-haired boy from Alderaan had run with him through the

  corridors of the Great Temple into the middle of this hotbed of repair

  work. The two stood panting, surrounded by all the activity.

  At one station @wie was busy rewiring the new slueld generator console.

  Tbnel Ka assembled components for a larger, sharper cornm screen,

  holding each piece in place with her chin or a knee and then fastening

  it down with clamps and anchors. His sister Jama bounced around the

  room with feverish enthusiasm, in the midst of twelve different projects

  at once.

  Jacen found the excitement vaguely bewildering-it was only a bunch of

  components and electronics, after all . . .

  nothing interesting. Oh, he was competent enough at running equipment,

  but he didn't have an understanding with machines like Jaina did.

  Instead, Jacen had an understanding with living creatures of all sizes.

  He'd been in his quarters feeding his pets when Raynar had summoned him.

  Now that Jacen had arrived, though, no one seemed to notice. "Hey,

  don't everybody greet me at once," he said. He turned to Raynar beside

  him.

  "So what's the cause for alarm?"

  The blond boy adjusted his newly washed robes and tightened his sash-a

  dull brown sash, Jacen noticed, not a color Raynar usually wore. He

  wondered if it had anything to do with the disappearance of his father.

  "They, uh, said some creature got into a transformer housing," he

  stammered, darting nervous glances toward the back of the room. "Tenel

  Ka suggested you might be able to coax it out, so I, um, ran to get

  you."

  It gave Jacen a warm feeling to know Tenel Ka had thought of him to

  solve a problem. Even with only one arm, she had proved herself so good

  at everything she did that Jacen often felt like a humbling buffoon

  around her. But Tenel Ka had asked for him-and this was something he

  was good at. He would be proud to help her.

  He grinned at Raynar, but the other boy didn't grin back.

  "Do you think it's safe?" Raynar asked hesitantly. "The creature might

  be poisonous."

  Jacen shut his eyes for a moment and sent a thought searching through

  the room, past the flurry of Jedi students and New Republic engineers.

  .

  . .

  There. He had it. Jacen opened his eyes.

  "Well, it's not a crystal snake, if that's what you're worried about.

  Nothing dangerous."

  "Well, if you're sure, I'll go back to my station," Raynar said,

  twisting his brown sash into knots around his fingers.

  "This'll take just a few minutes," Jacen answered. "There's nothing

  lurking anywhere near your comm console. Don't worry." Raynar nodded

  and cautiously went back to his workstation.

  Jacen headed to where Tenel Ka worked quickly and methodically, clad

  only in her hzard-hide armor, a pair of boots, and a tool belt. "Hey,

  Tenel Ka. How do you tell the difference between a rancor?" he asked

  brightly.

  Tenel Ka turned her cool gray eyes toward him and raised an eyebrow. "I

  believe that one of its legs are both the same."

  Jacen blinked in surprise. "You've heard that one before?"

  'Yes." Tenel Ka did not stop working.

  "Please hold this. Thank you. Yourjoke is a well-known piece of

  non-sequitur humor from my mother's clan on Dathomir. Most people don't

  understand it-even fewer find it funny."

  Jacen slapped his forehead. "I should have known. Anyway, Raynar said

  you wanted to see me."

  "Ah. Aha." She gestured toward a metallic ho x fastened near the

  ceiling. "I had hoped you could convince the creature to leave the

  power transformer housing before it comes to harm, or before it causes

  any damage to the circuitry."

  'Hey, that's great, Tenel Ka. I think you're really starting to

  understand how I feel about animals and why I like to collect pets."

  "Perhaps," she said. Then in a drier voice she added, "I also had no

  wish to disassemble and reassemble the transformer housing."

  Jacen felt himself flush. Well, at least she had asked for his help,

  which was rare enough for Tenel Ka.

  Jacen rolled a portable piece of lightweight scaffolding ag
ainst the

  wall, locked it into place, then clambered up to where the uninvited

  reptilian guest had hidden. Placing his palm under a hole in the

  transformer housing, Jacen sent enticing thoughts to the creature

  inside. Warm. Safe. Warm. Food.

  He concentrated, adding reassurance and calm thoughts, tempting the

  creature.

  In less than a minute, a spotted thyrsl slithered out and curled happily

  on Jacen's palm. Long and flexible, the thyrsl looked like a skinny

  snake with twelve tiny legs.

  "You just crawled in there for the heat, didn't you?" Jacen crooned,

  cupping it in his hand. "Don't worry, I'll take you someplace that's

  nice and warm." He turned, holding on to the scaffolding with his free

  hand, careful to maintain his balance. Out of the corner of his eye,

  Jacen caught a flash of brightly colored robes.

  "I just got a message that a ship's coming down to the landing clearing,

  on final approach," Raynar said. "It's the Millennium Falcon returning

  from Coruscant."

  Jacen was just clambering down to the next level of the scaffolding.

  "Hey, Dad didn't tell us he was coming back again so soon-" He loosened