Shards of Alderaan

by Kevin J. Anderson

  going?"

  "To our home-to rescue some things she needs."

  Zekk raced after her, feeling a powerful dread grow within him. He

  wondered if it was just his imagination . . . or an echo of

  premonition through. the Force. He had been avoiding using his Jedi

  powers since the Shadow Academy's defeat, afraid he would be too tempted

  to make use of the dark side again.

  But now he definitely sensed the athletic dark-haired woman was in grave

  danger.

  As she dashed inside the shaking building, Zekk ran toward her, but his

  legs wobbled and jerked as the ground bounced beneath him like a

  vibrodrum.

  Rastur stood at the command center door, his face as ash-gray as the

  volcanic dust that filled the skies. His drawn lips mouthed one word as

  he watched Shinnan disappear inside the stone house. "No."

  With a great seismic heave, the ground split in front of Zekk like a

  torn sheet of paper. He toppled to the cobblestones as the fissure

  widened, trembled, then stopped.

  Zekk looked up, getting himself to his hands and knees, ready to jump

  across the meterwide crack that hung open like a yawning, jagged mouth.

  Then another shock struck through the ground. This time, the stone

  buildings did not survive-none of the remaining warehouses. And not the

  place Shinnan and Rastur had called home. The heavy roof collapsed, the

  walls buckled outward, and the entire structure fell in upon itself . .

  .

  crushing the young woman inside.

  As the tremors subsided, Zekk finally got back to his feet. He jumped

  across the broken fissure and staggered to the ruins of the building.

  'Shinnan!" he called out.

  He reached the rubble and tried to pull stone blocks away. Within

  moments Rastur and the remaining workers appeared at his side,

  instinctively knowing what to do, digging through the rubble. Rastur

  moved mechanically, in a daze, as if he had turned off all of his

  emotions. He had lost too much already to feel any greater despair.

  Zekk strove with his mind, trying to find some trace of Shinnan. 'Are

  you there?

  Can you hear me?" But only a cold, disturbing silence came back at him.

  . . .

  When they found Shinnan's body half an hour later, Zekk slumped in

  grief, but Rastur just stood, unmoving. In the young woman's hands she

  cradled an electronic datapad and a sheaf of paper.

  '@at were they?" Zekk said, picking them up, looking at drawings and

  handwritten notes. Somehow, she had considered these items important

  enough to die for.

  'They were our plans," Rastur said, 'our architectural designs for the

  new house we intended to build, once we moved back down to the surface .

  . . during resettlement."

  His words were choked off, and then he spoke in a flat voice as if

  repeating a memorized litany. "We anticipated casualties. We always

  knew people would die." He whispered again, "We anticipated casualties."

  Then he straightened, smartly gesturing to the other workers. "We're

  done here on Ennth. Load up the last ships."

  Rastur looked up at the sky. "It's time to leave this place to its own

  destruction."

  -----------------NLJDGING THE ROCK Dragon's controls, Jaina and Lowie

  worked together to land the Hapan passenger cruiser on what had once

  been the core of Alderaan. Em Teedee added his tinny voice of

  encouragement.

  "Steady, steady . . . oh, very well done, indeed!"

  Jacen glanced out the windowport, his fingers pressed against the

  transparisteel.

  "Looks like you picked the right one, Jama."

  The surface of the asteroid had a rippled appearance, pitted from the

  rigors of space and dusty from the powdery debris that flew like a storm

  through the rubble field.

  Craters had been gouged out by smaller rocks that had slammed like

  orbiting bullets into the asteroid.

  The Rock Dragon shuddered as its landing pads settled onto the surface.

  "We're secure," Jaina said. Lowie rumbled his agreement.

  "'Bine to get into our gear,' Jacen said.

  He rushed back to the storage compartment to prepare for their outside

  expedition, slid open the sealed door, and inspected the environment

  suits dangling there. "Never seen this design before. Tenel Ka, are

  you sure these suits are going to work for us?"

  "My grandmother packed them herself," Tenel Ka answered. 'She would

  naturally be most concerned for our safety." "Yeah, that's a fact,"

  Jacen said with a faint grin, thinking of the hard old woman and her

  unbridled ambitions.

  The Hapan environment suits were sturdy but flexible, a tightly woven

  and completely sealed fabric that would protect them from the vacuum of

  space while allowing them freedom of movement. The helmets that locked

  to the collars reminded Jacen of exotic seashells, curved and wkled to

  acconnnodate air tubes, outside spotlights, and coolant piping. Jacen

  slid one helmet over his head and turned, looking through the round

  faceplate at the redhaired warrior girl. 'How do I look?" he said.

  'Would you prefer an honest answer?" Tenel Ka replied.

  "It was just a rhetorical question," he mumbled, handing one of the

  suits to Tenel Ka as he climbed into another. "It looks like your

  grandmother even remembered an extralarge one for Lowbacca."

  "My grandmother paid careful attention to all such details before she

  allowed my parents to send me this ship," Tenel Ka said.

  The companions checked each other's fastenings to verify that the suits

  were secure. Jacen stood back to look at his friends in their

  seashell-shaped helmets, head lamps, and silvery suits; they appeared

  sinister and ominous.

  "We look like a crew of alien invaders,' he said. "Like those legendary

  pirates of the asteroid belt, Tenel Ka." Jaina picked up her sample

  packs and cutting tools and went to the magnetic hatch of the Rock

  Dragon. "What are we waiting for?" she said. "Let's go."

  Stepping out onto the surface of the asteroid, Jacen felt light as a

  feather, ready to fly. The ships on which he had traveled had been

  equipped with artificialgravity generators, but the pull from this

  metallic mountain in space was insufficient to hold them with more than

  a frail graspThe surface beneath his booted feet was like hardened slag.

  He used his boot heel to scrape away the tarnish and space dust,

  exposing bare metal that shone in the faint starlight. 'nlting his

  helmet upward, he saw the other rocks overhead, boulders like clouds

  casting random shadows across the core asteroid.

  Tenel Ka strode beside Lowie, who stood tall and hulking in his

  environment suit.

  Tenel Ka's grandmother had ordered a specially tailored suit for the

  young warrior girl, sealing off the extra sleeve for her missing arm so

  that the empty fabric would not get in her way.

  Jaina trudged forward, toolkit in hand, pointing her facemask downward

  as she studied the pocked metal surface. She stepped to a fissure in

  the rock and squatted to let the light in her helmet shine into the

  fissure like a beacon.
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  "Look here," she said, her voice echoing through their helmet comm

  system.

  Jacen hurried forward with Tenel Ka and Lowie to see delicate

  crystalline growths sprouting like feathers made of ice chips.

  Transparent needles branched in random directions, beautiful and

  glistening in the glow from Jaina's helmet light.

  "What are they?" Jacen said, breathless with wonder. "Are they alive?"

  "Some kind of silicon formation,' his sister answered.

  'Ah. Aha," Tenel Ka said. "Crystal ferns.

  I have heard of them in other asteroids.

  Some prospectors search for them. They are quite fragile and therefore

  are considered great treasures."

  "Should we take one of those for Mom?"

  Jacen asked.

  "No, let them keep growing," Jaina said.

  "I want something more . . . special.

  Something less fragile." She hopped across the broad fissure, but

  misjudged the low gravity and ended up flying many meters beyond the

  edge.

  "Hey, that looks like fun." Jacen took a flying leap and soared over his

  sister's head, tumbling in the air, and then gradually drifted back down

  to the surface.

  "Be careful," Jaina said. "It wouldn't take too much to reach escape

  velocity on this little rock-you'd fly off into space, and we'd have to

  go through the trouble of capturing you again."

  "Oh," Jacen said. "I guess that would be something to avoid." Jaina

  found a polished lake of pure solidified metal and knelt down, pulling

  her lightsaber free from its clip at her belt.

  "Looks like a good spot," she said.

  She switched on the lightsaber and scribed a rough octagon in the

  surface, cutting deep and angling toward the center. Tenel Ka and Lowie

  went to help. The pure metal vaporized, sizzling and popping in the

  cold vacuum as Jaina worked with slow precision to cut free a piece of

  what had once been the core of Alderaan.

  While his sister continued her careful excavation, Jacen went to look at

  a series of small holes no wider than his leg punched into the surface

  of the asteroid. He ducked down, shining his helmet beacon into one of

  the deep round craters.

  When his light gleamed on an open mouth and set of sharp teeth, he

  stumbled backward with a panicked cry. 'Blaster bolts!"

  Just then, something lunged out-long and snakelike, with a body like a

  fat worm and a mouth that held much more than its share of teeth.

  In the low gravity Jacen's quick reaction sent him tumbling backward,

  end over end. When he finally righted himself, he saw a larval space

  slug still thrashing and snapping for victims, rooted inside its little

  crater tunnel.

  "Friend Jacen, are you all right?" Tenel Ka had bounded over immediately

  upon hearing his outcry through their helmet comm systems.

  "Just surprised, that's all." He gestured with a gloved hand toward the

  writhing space slug. "I didn't expect anything alive out here-we're in

  open space and hard vacuum."

  Jaina came over, laughing more with relief that her brother was safe

  than from any outright mirth.

  Jacen took a deep breath. 'Dad told us that when he and Mom were in the

  Hoth asteroid belt, what they thought was a cave turned out to be the

  gullet of a huge space slug. Those creatures are rare, thoughI've never

  seen one before. Especially not a baby."

  Curious, he crept forward to look at the specimen as it withdrew slowly

  back into its hole. "This must be a young one. They feed on metal, I

  think, so this core asteroid would be a good place to raise larvae."

  Tenel Ka agreed gruffly. "The asteroid would provide nourishment for a

  very long time."

  As Jacen bent closer, his light startled the young space slug, and it

  lunged out again, snapping its teeth. The creature seemed blind, unable

  to locate its exact target. Jacen backed off. "I guess it doesn't want

  to be disturbed," he said dejectedly.

  Jaina returned to her work and a few moments later lifted out a

  beautiful solid chunk. The heavy metallic prize glittered and shone in

  the soft light. The lightsaber cutting had given it polished sides and

  clean edges, so that the metal looked like a bright faceted gem.

  'All right, we've got what we came for," she said, delight and

  excitement pouring through her voice. 'We promised Dad we'd head right

  home."

  The young Jedi Knights followed her back to the Rock Dragon, and Jacen

  cast one brief glance toward where the space slug had gone back to its

  lair.

  Inside the ship again, their suits removed, Jacen powered up the comm

  syz,term to send a message to Yavin 4. Raynar answered the signal,

  apparently assigned to communication duties again at the Jedi academy.

  "Hey, Raynar," Jacen said, "we just wanted to report in."

  "Good. Han Solo's been in here a dozen times, waiting to hear from

  you," Raynar said. "He's getting anxious."

  Jacen laughed. "You can tell Dad that we found what we wanted. Our

  mission is a complete success."

  "I'll tell him that,' the young man from Alderaan said. "You're being

  very mysterious."

  "Well, we are on sort of a secret mission, you know," Jacen said with a

  grin. He signed off and sat back in his chair as the others fastened

  their crash webbing and Jaina powered up the Rock Dragon's engines.

  Time to go back to Yavin 4, before anything went wrong. . . .

  -----------------WHILE JAINA SAT back, polishing and admiring the chunk

  of metal she had taken from Alderaan's core, Lowbacca took the pilot's

  seat of the Rock Dragon, piloting them through the hazards of the

  asteroid belt.

  "Just take us home, Lowie,' Jaina said.

  "I can't wait until we give this to Mom. I think it'll be the best

  present we've ever given her." . The young Wookiee growled happily, and

  Em Teedee translated. "Master @wbacca comments that the piloting task

  you requested is certainly within his capabilities and he is ready and

  willing to perform it." Jaina laughed. "I thought he just said,

  'Okay."" Em Teedee gave a miffed bleep.

  Lowbaccatested the shivs systems, scanning the Hapan controls as he

  powered up the engines. Carefully, he released the Rock Dragon's

  magnetic grip on themetal asteroid. The Hapan cruiser driftedfree and

  floated out into the rubble stream that had once been Alderaan.

  Checking for his best exit path, Lowie verified the orbital streams

  plotted on the navigation screen. He scratched his ginger-colored fur

  and hoped he wouldn't have to resort to so many U-turn maneuvers to

  depart from the rubble field.

  Now that the companions weren't aimlessly searching for some unknown

  target, charting their path back to the Jedi academy on Yavin 4 should

  be a simple task-or so Lowie hoped.

  Just then a strange ship appeared from out of nowhere, its weapons

  powered up.

  Without warning, the enemy ship blasted at them.

  The first set of high-energy bolts streaked by, heating up the edges of

  their shields..

  Luckily, because of all the space debris, @wle had already set the

  shields to mamm
um as a simple precaution. He roared in alarm. The

  other young Jedi knights cried out, txying to hold on through the

  concussion. Another laser blast hammered against their shields.

  The Wookiee reacted quickly with his Jedi senses, yanking at the ship's

  propulsion controls. Reeling the Rock Dragon away, he employed an

  unorthodox strategy and shot straight up into the heart of the asteroid

  field.

  The attacking ship fired at them again, and Lowie spun their cruiser

  around, jerking the ship backward, realigning their course, and firing

  his thrusters at maxiMUM.

  The reckless maneuvers knocked Em Teedee loose and threw him to the

  floor. As Jacen and Tenel Ka both scrambled to retrieve him, the little

  droid wailed, "We're doomed! We're doomedr Jaina dropped her precious

  shard of Alderaan and sat up in the copilot's seat, struggling to focus

  on the emergency at hand. "Who's firing at us?" she said, peering

  through the main windowport. 'I @t see the ship! Didn't they send out

  any warnings" Tenel Ka tossed Em Teedee up to Jaina, who plugged the

  droid into the navigation console.