Shards of Alderaan

by Kevin J. Anderson

  the engines up and running, we can probably make do with only a few

  patches on the hull plating. Our primary mission now is just getting

  out of here alive."

  "Mat is a good mission," Tenel Ka agreed, fastening her breathing mask

  over her face.

  Jaina and Jacen did the same.

  While Lowbacca remained inside to tinker with Em Tbedee, wiring him to

  the control panels, the other three exited the ship. Jaina used the

  light of a glowrod to study the craggy rocks of the cavern ceiling. The

  entire asteroid had nearly split apart from the immense impact of

  another meteoroid that had scooped out this crater. The air was thin

  and cold, the floor rough, the walls jagged.

  But they were probably safe for now.

  They just had to hope the attacking ship hadn't seen them duck into the

  shelter.

  "Things could be worse. At least we're not inside one of those giant

  space slugs,' Jacen said. He kicked at the rocks under his feet, then

  shrugged. "Hey-it never hurts to check."

  Jaina flipped her straight hair behind her ears and made her way to the

  rear of the Hapan ship, where most of the attacker's precision shots had

  landed. She felt dismayed at the sight of the blackened patches and

  carbon-scored holes sizzled through the engine cowlings and shield

  plates that protected their stardrives.

  Using her multitool, Jaina stripped away the charred outer debris and

  looked at the mangled disarray that remained of one of their drives.

  The second engine had fared better: still damaged but possibly

  reparable, given a few spare parts, a lot of intuition, and some risky

  rewiring.

  She pointed to the burned metal plating and destroyed components.

  "Jacen, Tenel Ka-while I check with Lowie to see w hat diagnostics Em

  Teedee's been able to run, I'd like you two to dismantle these damaged

  systems. Pull them out-we'll have to bypass them. Maybe we can salvage

  a eyberfuse or two . . . but they look pretty stagged to me."

  "That was going to be my expert opinion," Jacen said.

  Inside the Rock Dragon's cockpit, Jaina bent over Em Teedee where

  Lowbacca had hardwired him into the main control systems.

  "This is all terribly confusing," the translating droid said, his

  optical sensors glowing up from the center of the cockpit panels.

  "At first I found all this Hapan engineering to be completely

  incomprehensible. However, as I continue to study these systems, I

  believe I'm beginning to understand. I am gifted with self-learning

  capabilities, you know."

  Lowie pointed out the displayed schematics, gesturing with his furry

  arms and making suggestions. Since he was preoccupied with the ship's

  complex systems, Em Teedee couldn't spare the computing power to

  translate the Wookiee words, but Jaina could figure out most of what

  Lowie meant.

  'You want us to divert all the power from our weapons systems and shunt

  it into our remaining engine? You think that's smart?"

  This comment finally got Em Teedee's attention. 'But Master Lowbacca,

  that would leave us completely defenseless!" Lowie made a sharp

  continent, and Jaina knew what the young Wookiee meant. If the

  attacking ship found them before they could escape, they'd all be doomed

  anyway-with or without weapons.

  "I agree. We'll have to put everything we can into our engines," Jaina

  said with a sigh. "Let's get them repaired, plot an immediate path

  through hyperspace, and head off on that vector. I just hope we can

  jump to lightspeed before that pirate locks on to us and shoots us

  down."

  Lowie groaned his agreement, and Em Teedee refrained from continent.

  Jaina knew they would all have to work together, and quickly. She

  guessed that the other ship was still combing the rubble field, ready to

  blast them to pieces. He must have intended to capture the young Jedi

  Knights at first, targeting carefully-but now they had eluded him. Any

  inexperienced pilot might have been fooled by Tenel Ka's trick of the

  exploding gas canisters, but Jaina couldn't imagine this adversary would

  be so easily deceived . . . whoever he was.

  With Em Teedee wired into the main controls, Jaina and Lowie worked

  outside to reconfigure the ship's weaponry, routing the power through

  the remaining engine.

  The Rock Dragon carried a respectable supply of parts for emergency

  repairs, but no spare engines. The starboard drive was a total loss,

  providing only a few minor components and connections they could use in

  their repairs. Biting her lower lip, Jaina refused to give in to

  despair. She would just have to be resourceful.

  Jacen and Tenel Ka offered their assistance, and followed instructions

  from the two mechanically inclined Jedi trainees. It reminded Jaina of

  the efforts the companions had made when fixing Qorl's crashed TIE

  fighter in the jungles-but this time their labors were not just for

  their amusement. They needed to repair the Rock Dragon for their very

  survival.

  "Hey," Jacen said, trying to lighten the mood, 'what did the new animal

  trainer say after his first day of working with a team of vicious battle

  dogs?" He paused a beat. "This job is a pain in the nek!"

  He looked around, waiting for a response.

  'Uh . . . get it? They're called nek battle dogs, you see, and-oh,

  never mind."

  As the hours passed and the four friends worked together without

  complaint, Jacen and Lowie grew more and more convinced that they had

  escaped their enemy, that the hiding place in the crater cave had been a

  superb choice. Jaina did not share their optimism. . She felt a

  growing dread that every passing minute brought their pursuer closer to

  discovering them. . . .

  "I guess that's the best we can do," she finally said, slamming shut the

  clumsily repaired access panel. She hoped the engines and power sources

  would hold together long enough to haul the ship away.

  Lowie grumbled a comment, but without Em Teedee they couldn't get an

  exact translation.

  Jacen offered, "I think he said this ship isn't going to withstand too

  much bouncing around." The Wookiee chuffed and nodded.

  "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said, 'but Hapan technology is often sturdier

  than it might look." 'Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina said with a

  sigh, taking a final glance at their uncertain repairs.

  They climbed back inside the Rock Dragon, subdued. All four of them

  knew the gamble they had decided to take.

  Seated in the pilot's chair, Jaina powered up the systems with nervous

  fingers. The engines thrummed, vibrating with power, stuttering and

  popping, but the output held.

  Jaina bit her lower lip and sensed the flow through the engines, the

  pulse through the ship.

  The Rock Dragon trembled, humming unsteadily. The ship felt sick to

  Jaina, not up to its normal peak levels. But it would fly, and that was

  all they needed.

  She glanced over at Lowbacca. He smoothed down the dark streak of fur

  on his forehead, then nodded at'her. Lowie activated the repulsorlifts,

  and the s
hip raised up off the rocky floor in the low gravity.

  "All systems go," Jaina said.

  "All right!" Jacen cheered. "We're on our way."

  Tenel Ka sat gripping the edge of her seat with her hand, leaning

  slightly toward Jacen. The ship moved forward, approaching the narrow

  passageway through the rocks.

  Still wired into the console, Em Teedee said, "I can confirm that our

  escape path lies directly through that opening. I must say that this

  ship has superb sensors. In fact, I can even detect-oh, dear!" Before

  the translating droid could sound an alarm, as Jaina gently maneuvered

  the Rock Dragon through the narrow passageway toward open space, the

  silhouette of the enemy ship appeared at the mouth of the cave. Its

  laser cannons already glowed brightly.

  "He's found us!" Jacen cried just as the other ship opened fire.

  Wrenching the controls, Jaina hoped to reverse their engines and evade

  the blast, but this time their enemy did not target theRock Dragon

  itself. Instead, its powerfullasers pulverized the unstable roof of

  thecrater cave.

  The ceiling collapsed. Boulders split off from precarious positions,

  and the entire avalanche tumbled in slow motion, pounding down on the

  ship like sledgehammers . . . burying them within the empty cave.

  -----------------FALLING BOULDERS SOUNDED like thunder outside the Rock

  Dragon. All the ship's systems went dark, plunging them into blackness.

  Buried alive.

  Jaina braced herself at the controls, but knew she could do nothing-not

  yet.

  Gradually, backup systems kicked in.

  Em Teedee, working frantically to tap into their emergency power,

  restored a low glow to illuminate the cabin of the Hapan passenger

  cruiser.

  Jaina's head ached, but she drove away thoughts of pain as she got to

  her feet to make sure her friends were all right. As soon as the lights

  flickered back on, she swept her gaze over the others. Lowbacca, Jacen,

  and Tenel Ka all appeared to be stunned but uninjured.

  Jaina scrambled back into her seat, suppressing a groan. "Em Teedee, is

  our hull integrity still intact?" She rubbed her left temple. 'Any

  leakage?"

  'Oh, Mistress Jaina! The diagnostic systems have simply gone mad," the

  little droid wailed. "This is terribly distressing.

  Why, I-"

  "Em Teedee," she snapped, "are we leaking air or not?" "No, Mistress

  Jaina-we seem to be intact."

  Jacen, who lay on the floor of the cockpit, sorted and ran his fingers

  through his tousled hair. 'I'll bet we wouldn't win any prizes for

  best-maintained ship in the galaxy," he said. He moaned. "Guess I

  should've buckled my crash webbing before we started to move, huh?"

  "Prizes for ship maintenance are not our concern at the moment," Tenet

  Ka answered, offering her hand to help him to his feet.

  "Looks like we'll have to make some of the same repairs again," Jaina

  said, scanning the other cockpit systems. "And a few new ones, too. I

  wonder if that other ship has given us up for dead."

  "I hope so," Jacen said. "Then he'd just leave, wouldn't he?"

  Tenet Ka shook tier head. "No, I believe his strategy was to trap us,

  not to kill. He wants something from us . . . though he refuses to

  communicate directly."

  Rigged up at the control panels, Em Teedee let out a bleep of surprise.

  "Oh, alarm! Alarm! Emergency! Dear me, this is dreadful!"

  "What is it, Em Teedee?" Jaina said, swivelling in the pilot's chair to

  look at him. "A hull breach?"

  "No, I can't bear it! We are being violated-scanned! Someone is

  copying everything in our memory banks."

  'Scanned? How can anyone scan us?

  That would take a . . ."

  "Indeed, it is a remote slicer, Mistress Jaina-a highly illegal piece of

  equipment, if my memory circuits are functioning properly. I should

  think he'd be ashamed!"

  "I guess he hasn't given us up for dead, then," Jacen said.

  Lights flashed on the control panels as the enemy ship linked up to

  their computers, skimming through their files. "If he reads our

  navigation history and our ship's log entries," Tenet Ka said, "he will

  know who we are."

  Scrambling with the controls, Jaina and Lowie were unable to block their

  enemy's computer access probe. "Not a thing we can do about it,

  either," Jaina said. Lowie growled.

  "Well, we would have introduced ourselves by now, if he'd just given us

  the chance," Jacen said.

  Jaina pounded on the control panel in frustration. She seemed to be

  entirely out of options. "I don't believe this! Remote slicers are

  completely illegal-not to mention expensive. Never even seen one

  myself. Only the most powerful high rollers can afford them."

  "Of course," Tenel Ka said, raising her eyebrows and tossing her head to

  fling her reddish-gold braids behind her, "a certain powerful high

  roller helped to outfit this ship-and my grandmother always plans for

  many . . . contingencies."

  Jacen, Jaina, and Lowie all looked at her, comprehension dawning on

  their faces.

  'Em Teedee," Jaina said breathlessly, "see if the Rock Dragon has one of

  those remote slicers."

  "But Mistress Jaina, there is such an unusual combination of systems on

  board that I-"

  "Just check, Em Teedee!"

  "Yes, very well," the little droid said.

  "Amazing! Why, I do believe I have found one. I'm quite astonished,

  since upstanding citizens could hardly be expected to deal in such

  illegal and unorthodox equipment."

  "That means we can use our own remote transmitter to pull data from our

  friend's memory banks, see who he is and what he's after," Jaina said,

  feeling her heart pound with new optimism. "Turnabout. Give this guy a

  taste of his own medicine." "Shall I begin now, Mistress Jaina?" Em

  Teedee said hopefully. "I'm certain I can perform the appropriate

  shcing fimctions.

  I feel so . . . useful here in my position.

  Almost like the captain of a ship."

  "Don't get delusions of grandeur, Em Teedee," Jacen said, and Lowie

  chuffed with laughter.

  "Using the Rock Dragon's remote slicer would not be a wise idea at the

  moment," Tenel Ka said. "If we did, our enemy would know we were

  alive-and that we had background information-just as we can see he's

  probing us now."

  "Good point,' Jaina said. "Wait a while, Em Teedee. Meantime, we

  should go out and check over our situation, move a few rocks, see how

  bad it is this time."

  "Yeah," Jacen said, "before our friend figures out what to do with the

  information he's stolen from us."

  Carrying portable high-powered glowrods, the young Jedi Knights put on

  their breathing masks and ventured out into the collapsed cavern to look

  over the battered exterior of the ship. Rock shards had pounded the

  Rock Dragon's hull, smashing the already-damaged engines, the

  stabilizers, and some of the external communications systems.

  'We're banged up-but it could have been a lot worse," Jacen said

  optimistically.

  "The Force was with us," Tene
l Ka said.

  Lowie groaned and gestured toward what had been the opening of the

  crater cave. A collapsed wall of rock completely blocked the exit.

  Boulders piled in a jumbled wall sealed them inside like a tomb. The

  Wookiee's shoulders slumped.

  Jaina patted his ginger-furred arm.

  "With our lightsabers and the Force, I'm sure we can clear that away

  given time."

  "But how much time do you think we have?" Jacen said. Nobody hazarded a

  guess.

  Jaina cleared the rubble from the top of the ship and climbed up onto

  it. Kneeling, she inspected the hull plates, brushing away dust with

  her fingertips. "Like Em Teedee said, no evident ruptures. The worst

  news, though, is that our communications array is smashed. We can't

  send out a distress signal."

  "Not that we'd want to," Jacen said.

  "My friend Jacen is correct," Tenel Ka said. 'A distress signal would

  only lure others into the ambush. We do not know how many more pirates

  may be hiding in this asteroid field."

  "There's already one too many," Jacen said. Bending over, he hefted one

  of the boulders that had wedged itself between a flight fin and a