The Lost Ones

by Kevin J. Anderson

  gone," the old man whispered.

  When Lowie placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, Jaina felt strength

  and optimism flow back into her, as soothing as cool water to her burning

  sorrow. Drawing a deep breath, she searched the observation window again for

  any sign of hope.

  A new movement caught her eye. "There!" she said, turning to grab Lowie's

  hairy arm.

  "Did you see that?" Peckhum squinted, and the young Wookiee gave an

  interrogative growl.

  "What do you mean, 'See what?"' Jaina said. "Look--something else is out

  there, right where the Shadow Academy was."

  Lowie's rumbled reply sounded hesitant, but Em Teedee piped up to translate.

  "Master Lowbacca is loath even to suggest the possibility, but might that

  not simply be a New Republic ship, or one of the pieces of debris you've

  been tracking?"

  "Absolutely not," Jaina said stubbornly. "Besides, any debris with a path

  that intersected the Shadow Academy would have been destroyed already--just

  like that shuttle, the Moon Dash."

  Peckhum hunched over the comm system. "Strange. That object seems to be

  transmitting a pickup signal--if I read this correctly, that is."

  Lowie's triumphant roar brought Chewbacca from the main stabilizer unit,

  where he had been attempting manual repairs to the mirror adjustment

  systems--to no avail.

  "Not very big," Jaina said, studying the mirror station's crude scanners.

  "Small enough to be an escape pod, don't you think?"

  Lowie looked up at his uncle, who rumbled a negative.

  "Looks more like a message canister to me," Peckhum said. "Speaking of

  which, the transmitters are working now, so why don't we send a message to

  the New Republic fleet? They'll pick it up, whatever it is."

  "Well then," Jaina said, "what are we waiting for? Let's raise Admiral

  Ackbar."

  Lowie transmitted the message while Jaina stared at the screen, still

  hoping.

  "Years ago, Uncle Luke told me about one of his first students, a young man

  named Kyp Durron, who managed to stow away in a message pod." Jaina sent her

  mind out toward the object, trying to gather tiny bits of information with

  the Force. But she felt nothing, sensed no presence of her dark-haired

  friend. She heard Lowie croon a sad note beside her, but even without his

  confirmation, she knew that they wouldn't find Zekk inside the message pod.

  At least not alive.

  Jaina bit her lip and tried to look over Peckhum's shoulder as he piloted

  his old ship, the Lightning Rod, back toward Coruscant. Her view was all but

  obscured by the hairy form of Chewbacca, who took up the copilot's seat and

  much of the area around it. Thinking about the retrieved message pod from

  the Shadow Academy --still sealed against the vacuum of space and possibly

  containing a message from Zekk--filled her with a sense of urgency.

  She wished she could tell Chewie and Peckhum to hurry up, that they had to

  get back immediately so they could be on hand when the message pod was

  opened. But that would have been foolish, not to mention rude. The two of

  them seemed to understand her anxiety and had already pushed the Lightning

  Rod to the highest speed its safety limits would allow. In the compartment

  behind them, the engines made disconcerting clunking sounds. Jaina bit her

  lower lip.

  Lowie sat in thoughtful silence beside her. Only the deep indentations left

  by his hairy fingers in the foam padding of the arm cushions told Jaina that

  the young Wookiee felt a tension similar to hers. As they reentered the

  atmosphere, Jaina forced her eyes shut and practiced one of Uncle Luke's

  Jedi relaxation techniques. But it didn't seem to work.

  Finally, a gentle thump and the diminishing whine of the Lightning Rod's

  engines told her they had arrived at one of the landing pads in Imperial

  City .

  Jaina jumped down onto the landing pad without waiting for the exit ramp to

  extend fully; she couldn't even remember having unfastened her crash webbing

  or opening the exit hatch. She immediately caught sight of her parents,

  brothers, and Tenel Ka, who were standing near another New Republic ship

  that had obviously just landed. The message pod from the Shadow Academy was

  already being unloaded. Jaina ran toward her family.

  "Any sign of explosives or weapons?" Leia was asking Admiral Ackbar as he

  stood watching his troops perform their duties.

  "Absolutely none. We scanned it," he said. "It's clean. No booby traps."

  "What about biologicals?" Han asked. The admiral shook his fishlike head.

  "Can't be anything dangerous in there," Jaina said, skidding to a stop

  beside her parents. "It's from Zekk--I can feel it."

  Admiral Ackbar looked skeptical, but three young voices spoke up at once.

  "Hey, she's right."

  "I feel it too."

  "This is a fact."

  "Even so," the Calamarian admiral said, "in the interest of safety, perhaps

  we should--"

  Unable to bear the suspense any longer, Jaina pushed past the two guards who

  stood between her and the capsule, and activated the message retrieval

  mechanism. With a small whoosh of depressurization, the double panels slid

  aside to reveal the contents--a device of some sort, a complicated jumble of

  knobby plasteel parts and cabling.

  "What is that?" Leia asked in surprise.

  "Stand back!" Ackbar shouted. The guards tensed, as if expecting an

  explosion.

  Han glanced into the capsule and then looked over at Chewbacca and Peckhum,

  who had come to join them. "What do you think, Chewie?"

  Chewbacca scratched his head and gave a couple of short, surprised-sounding

  barks.

  "Yeah, looks like that to me, too," Han agreed.

  "So what is it?" Jacen asked, exasperated at being unable to follow the

  interchange.

  "A central multitasking unit, of course," Jaina whispered in amazement and

  delight. "From Zekk." Jaina heard a satisfied grunt from behind her.

  Old Peckhum muttered, "Kid's never broken a promise to me yet."

  Then, as if conjured by Peckhum's words, a holoprojector hummed to life. A

  tiny image of Zekk resolved itself in the air just above the message pod.

  Jaina bit down hard on her lip again as the tiny glowing form began to

  speak.

  "I'm doing this against the better judgment of my teachers here," Zekk said,

  "so I'll make this message brief.''

  "Peckhum, my friend, here's the central multitasking unit I promised you.

  You always expected only the best from me, and I always gave it. This must

  be hard for you, but I want you to know that no one has kidnapped me or

  brainwashed me.''

  "To Jacen and"--the tiny holographic image hesitated--"and Jaina, it turns

  out I do have Jedi potential after all. I'm going to make more out of myself

  than anyone imagined I could be. We were good friends, and I'd never want to

  hurt you. Sorry I messed up your mother's diplomatic banquet--but that's one

  reason I'm doing this. I have the chance to become something better--a

  chance that I was never given by anyone in the New Republic ."

  Jaina groaned and shut her eyes, but the image contin
ued to speak.

  "I know this is something you wouldn't approve of, but I'm doing it for

  myself. If I ever come back, I'll be someone you can all be proud of.''

  "Don't worry, Peckhum, I'll never let you down. You've been my truest

  friend, and if there's any way I can come back to you, I will."

  When Jaina opened her eyes again the tiny image had faded into sparkles, but

  she wouldn't have been able to see it anyway through her tears.

  * 22 *

  THE HANGAR BAY at the base of the Great Temple on Yavin 4 was quiet and

  cool, welcoming the travelers back to the Jedi academy. The ship sighed as

  it settled down on the smooth floor. Luke Skywalker emerged from the hatch

  and stood in the shadows as his students climbed out after him.

  In the days when the Great Temple had been a secret Rebel base on the jungle

  moon, the hangar bay had been a place of frantic activity, filled with

  X-wing fighters, noisy equipment, droids, fighter pilots, and miscellaneous

  weaponry. In recent years, however, this had been a peaceful place of Jedi

  contemplation.

  Luke turned to watch the young Jedi Knights following him out of the Shadow

  Chaser, the sleek Imperial ship he and Tenel Ka had captured from the Shadow

  Academy while rescuing Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca. Luke's thoughts were as

  troubled as the faces of his young students descending the exit ramp.

  With the help of the Shadow Academy , a group of renegades calling

  themselves the Second Imperium was mounting a serious threat against the

  shaky peace that had been built over the past two decades by the New

  Republic .

  They could all sense it, and the battle was brewing, a great battle that

  would decide the fate of the galaxy The Shadow Academy had become more bold

  in searching for recruits with Jedi potential. In addition, it seemed to be

  welcoming trainees with no Jedi skills whatsoever--but why? And then there

  was the theft of hyperdrive cores and turbolaser batteries from the

  Adamant--components that could be used to build a powerful military fleet.

  Something big was going to happen--and soon. . . .

  Luke had picked the kids up from Coruscant, which had given him an

  opportunity to see his sister Leia and learn more about the newest Imperial

  threat to the New Republic . Since then, none of the young Jedi Knights had

  spoken much, each lost in private thoughts. Now they had arrived back on the

  jungle moon, where the other students were still training, bringing back the

  powerful force of Jedi Knights to help strengthen the New Republic . The new

  government was going to need its Force-trained defenders soon.

  Bright sunlight streamed through the broad door of the hangar, bathing the

  entire bay in light and shadow. Clean shadows. Luke looked up at the

  sunlight glinting off the burnished quantum armor on the Shadow Chaser.

  "The Shadow Chaser is still a beautiful ship." Jaina's voice cut into Luke

  Skywalker's thoughts. "Look at those lines, the curves."

  "And at least it's one powerful ship the Shadow Academy doesn't have

  anymore," Jacen added, coming to stand beside them.

  Luke nodded. "But it also shows us what our enemies are capable of building.

  Think of what they can do with that large shipment of hyperdrive cores and

  turbolaser batteries they just stole."

  Lowie grunted agreement.

  "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said.

  Luke turned and strode through the open hangar bay doors, and the young Jedi

  Knights followed him out into the humid sunlight. Droplets of morning dew

  still sparkled on the Massassi trees and climbing ferns. The jungle air was

  filled with the scent of sweet growing things and the croaking, rustling,

  and twittering sounds of exuberant life.

  Jacen's forehead was creased, as if by the weight of his thoughts. He turned

  and glanced back into the dimness of the hangar bay, catching sight of the

  Shadow Chaser. He sighed, then finally said what was on his mind. "I still

  can't believe that Zekk willingly chose to go to the dark side," he said.

  "Uncle Luke, what are we going to do about him? What did we do wrong? He was

  our friend, and now he's joined the enemy.''

  Jaina spoke through gritted teeth. "It's our fault for not showing him that

  he was just as important as anyone else. We didn't even realize he had Jedi

  potential. It's our fault," she repeated.

  Lowie started to snarl a reply, then quickly reached toward his belt and

  turned off Em Teedee before the little droid could offer a translation.

  "It's not so simple to tell who has Jedi potential and who doesn't," Luke

  said, sensing Jaina's despair and self-reproach. "Especially if they don't

  know it themselves. Even Darth Vader had no idea that your mother Leia had

  Jedi potential, though he spent quite a lot of time near her. You can't

  blame yourself, Jaina."

  Tenel Ka spoke up, a distant look in her cool gray eyes. "Zekk made his own

  choice for his own reasons," she said. "We all do."

  "But how could he betray us like that?" Jacen asked.

  Jaina winced at the word. "He can't betray us!" Her voice was hot with the

  strength of her emotions. "He won't, he promised. And he'll be back. I know

  it."

  "The pull of the dark side is strong," Luke answered. "It's possible to turn

  away from it, but the price is always high. It cost your grandfather his

  life. . . . '

  "But there's always hope--for Zekk, even for Brakiss. We have no way of

  knowing. One thing I do know, though." Luke turned his face toward the

  sunlight and enjoyed the feeling of the free breeze ruffling his hair. "The

  forces of darkness are gearing up for a full-scale war."

  "Do we have to just wait for them to make the next move?" Jacen asked.

  "Can't we try to prepare ourselves for the coming fight?"

  Luke looked with pride at each of the young Jedi Knights. "Yes, we can. A

  great battle is coming," he said, his voice tinged with both sadness and

  hope. "The Jedi Knights--all of us--have no choice but to prepare for it."

  It's time for the Jedi to choose their weapons . . .