Under A Black Sun Trilogy

by Kevin J. Anderson

  STAR WARS: UNDER A BLACK SUN TRILOGY

  by

  KEVIN J. ANDERSON AND REBECCA MOESTA

  RETURN TO ORD MANTELL 8, "" & Copyright C 1998 by Lucasfilm Ltd.

  Printing History: Berkley Jwn paperback / May 1998

  TROUBLE ON CLOUD CITY 8, *" & Copyright (D 1998 by Lucasfilm Ltd.

  Printing History: Berkley Jam paperback / August 1998

  CRISIS AT CRYSTAL REEF (3, "" & Copyright C 1998 by Lucasfilm Ltd.

  Printing History: Berkley Jam paperback / December 1998

  First SFBC Science Fiction Printing: April 1999

  ISBN 0-7394-0193-9

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or

  any other means, without permission.

  Published by arrangement with: Boulevard Books a division of The

  Berkley Publishing Group 200 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016

  Visit us online at littp.-Ilw.sfbe.com

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

  CONTENTS

  RETURN TO ORD MANTELL I TROUBLE ON CLOUD CITY 125

  CRISIS AT CRYSTAL REEF 241

  To Angela M. Kato, whose hard work and charming personality helped us

  to find more time to write

  ACKNOWLED6MENTS

  Special thanks to Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and Lucy Autrey Wilson at

  Lucasfilm Licensing for their valuable input on this new story are;

  Ginjer Buchanan and Jessica Faust at Berkley for putting their full

  support behind this series; the Star Wars fans at Dragon*Con's Matters

  of the Force panels for their enthusiastic brainstorming; Dave Dorman

  for his marvelous cover art; Dan Wallace and Rich Handley for their

  research and resource materials; the work of Brian Daley, Al

  Williamson, and Archie Goodwin for providing fodder for our

  imaginations; Catherine Ulatowski, Sarah Jones, and Angela Kato at

  WordFire, Inc for keeping everything running smoothly; and Jonathan

  Cowan for being our first test-reader.

  The tree stood in the middle of a small jungle clearing, its gnarled,

  woody tentacles wrathing through the air in search of prey.

  As Zekk approached, the tentacles twitched, sensing his movement.

  The sinuous vines were ewnouflaged, deceptively lush and green. He

  took another step forward. The ground around the tree's warty trunk

  was littered with bones-broken grayish-white remnants of previous

  victims, stripped of flesh, now decaying in the humid air of Yavin 4:

  Zekk moved even closer, and the hungry tree trembled in anticipation.

  He told himself he had nothing to fear. Of course he would have been

  much more comfortable had he been carrying a lightsaber, a Jedi weapon

  that could counter any attack from this plant-thing-but that would have

  been too easy. Much too easy.

  Zekk wasn't interested in a simple end to this exercise.

  Instead, he conied only a plain staff. He had found the length of

  dried wood in the jungle and stripped off its bark. It was all the

  weapon he would allow himself to use in this important test.

  He stepped forward, faced the wrathing tentacle tree, and prepared to

  do battle. "I will let the Force guide me," he murmured to himself,

  "allow it to direct my Jedi reflexes to respond to any tricks the enemy

  may devise."

  The carnivorous tentacle tree reached toward him, its deadly branches

  whispering together in a leafy sigh.

  "Most of all," he went on in a hushed voice, "I must not let myself be

  tempted by the easy power I can unleash through the dark side."

  Zekk had already traveled the dark paths of the Force when he trained

  at the Shadow Academy. Now he was a new student learning to use the

  light side-but at the same time, he was an old student ... with many

  scars on his conscience.

  He raised his stick. The tree's tentacles quivered as it prepared for

  this easy prey.

  "The Force is with me," Zekk said, and stepped in among the dangling

  branches, his staff held high.

  Three of the whipping vines thrashed at him, making the stick their

  primary target. Zekk snapped his wrist downward. A loud crack rang

  out as the staff beat back two of the tentacles.

  Another serpentine appendage crackled and wrapped itself around Zekk's

  right wrist. Without hesitation, he tossed the staff to his left hand,

  swung it up, and battered the offending tentacle as he yanked his hand

  free.

  His skin burned and tingled as the clutching vine tore away from his

  wrist. He realized then that this plant-thing exuded some kind of

  irritating acid through its tiny spines. His hand began to swell, but

  Zekk turned his concentration back to the vines that still lashed at

  him. He could deal with the pain later.

  He struck left and right, knocking the thrashing vines away. His hand

  turned red and throbbed; he could barely bend his fingers. A forest of

  tentacles now whipped and clawed at him. He could have severed them

  all with a single sweep of a lightsaber blade, but Zekk drove them back

  one-handed, using only his staff.

  Simple victories were not worth fighting for. Without a challenge,

  victory was meaningless. He had come here to learn a new lesson-and

  unlearn an old one.

  To begin Zekk's training in the light side of the Force, Master

  Skywalker had told him to start with simple exercises to test his most

  basic skills. Somehow, Zekk didn't think that venturing out into the

  jungles to battle this carnivorous tree was quite what the Jedi teacher

  had in mind. Perspiration trickled down Zekk's face and neck. His

  long dark hair clung in damp strands around his emerald-green eyes.

  Zekk smiled.

  He gritted his teeth and drove inward. He had fought many times

  before. The Dark Jedi Brakiss had trained Zekk to become the Second

  Imperium's darkest knight. Together, they-along with many other

  followers of the Emperor's ways-had battled Luke Skywalker's students

  at the Jedi academy.

  But Zekk and the other Dark Jedi had been soundly defeated, and Brakiss

  killed. Broken, Zekk had turned away from the dark side. Even though

  he had formerly been a close friend of the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina,

  Zekk could not easily grant himself forgiveness. He couldn't just join

  his friends and begin training as a Jedi of the light side as if

  nothing had happened.

  Instead, Zekk had gone off on his own to search for meaning in his

  life. He trained to become a bounty hunter and used his Jedi prowess

  to hunt down difficult bounties that no one else could capture. But in

  those months Zekk had learned something important about himself:

  although he had the skills, he didn't have the mind-set that would

  allow him to find any quarry for whatever reason and simply turn the

  victim over to anyone who happened to pay the price.

  When Nolaa Tarkona, head of a subversive political group called the

  Diversity Alliance, had se
t an open bounty on the merchant Boman Thul,

  Zekk had at first gone on the search, hoping to prove himself to Boba

  Fett and all the other bounty hunters. But Zekk had realized in time

  that the information Nolaa Tarkona wanted from the human merchant

  concerned a deadly human-killing plague-and that if he succeeded in his

  task, the entire human race might become extinct.

  Such consequences had forced him to change his mind and join forces

  with the young Jedi Knights after all. After they defeated the

  Diversity Alliance and the Emperor's plague was destroyed, Zekk had

  decided to start all over again, to become a true Jedi Knight. This

  time he would do his training in the right way.

  If only this tree would let him.

  Shorter, spikier tentacles emerged from the hole of the tree,

  thrashing, grasping at him, but again Zekk drove them back with his

  staff. He could have pulled back at any time, but instead he pushed

  closer. Then, although the irritant chemical in his swollen right hand

  bothered him, he gripped the stick with both hands again. He would not

  let the pain slow him down.

  Zekk didn't have any clear idea of how he would define "victory."

  He did not intend to kill the tree, but as his battle fever picked up,

  he fought more furiously, pounding the tentacles with his hard staff.

  Another whiplike vine snapped sharply and struck him in the forehead

  just above his eye, drawing a trickle of blood. He reeled backward,

  blinking his eyes against the stinging tears and red droplets.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, two of the vines wrapped themselves around his

  stick, twisted hard, and yanked it from Zekk's hand, tearing the flesh

  on his palms. Then, as if sensing victory, the relentless tentacles

  also grabbed at his arms and legs. Zekk stood trapped in a blizzard of

  grasping strands.

  A black static of anger overpowered his fear. Zekk used the Force to

  reach out and locate his stolen staff. He jerked the stick back toward

  him-so furiously that two vines ripped away from the central mass of

  the tree and began oozing clear sap.

  With the dying tentacles still dangling from his staff, Zekk swung

  around, using it as a flail against the others. He used the Force

  again to tie several of the strands into knots and laughed out loud at

  how easy this battle was becoming.

  Then, in a flash of comprehension, Zekk realized that he was not truly

  succeeding; he had unleashed his anger and tapped the dark side as a

  conduit to his Jedi skills.

  "No!" he said through gritted teeth. He refused to win against the

  plant-thing in this way. Zekk threw the retrieved staff aside and

  stood unarmed as the stinging tentacles drew back, then poised

  themselves to attack with renewed force.

  But Zekk kept his mind clear, his thoughts calm. "I am not your prey,"

  he murmured.

  The tree had no intelligence, just a rudimentary mass of vascular plant

  fiber with reflexes that responded like muscles. Hungry tentacles

  lashed at him-only to slide harmlessly away, as if his entire body were

  coated with some invisible super lubricant.

  "I wn not your prey," Zekk repeated.

  The ineffective vines reached toward him, but they could not touch his

  skin. Sinuous appendages danced in frustration around his amns, his

  head, his back.

  Zekk turned away from the tree and walked slowly beyond the reach of

  the grasping tentacles. He knew he had temporarily let down his guard,

  a failure of sorts. But he had seen the dark side, recognized it, and

  rejected it! He would put it behind him now. He felt as if he had

  emerged from a raging storm with only a few drops of water clinging to

  him. The storm was past. A sense of warmth and peace came over him.

  At the edge of the clearing, standing beside the thick bushes, he saw

  Master Luke Skywalker watching him with a quiet smile on his face.

  "I'm proud of you, Zekk," he said. "It took courage to turn away from

  your old instincts. Sometimes it's harder to unlearn bad teaching than

  it is to learn new skills. It will be hard to forget what Brakiss

  taught you."

  "Yes," Zekk said. "I've got to learn it the right way now. I feel

  like a kid learning to walk again-and I thought I already knew how.

  It's ... intimidating." He said the word in a small voice, as if

  reluctant to admit it. "All the tests and exercises here remind me of

  what I learned at the Shadow Academy. I'm afraid to do things the same

  way. I mean, what if I do them wrong again?"

  "There's no single way to become a Jedi," Luke Skywalker said.

  "If it makes you more comfortable, we'll find a different path. Try a

  new assignment. Take something you're already good at-somethirg you

  enjoy-and use the Force, little by little, to enhance your abilities.

  It doesn't have to be fighting with a staff, or levitating rocks, or

  sensing danger. The Force is in all things. Find a task that feels

  right. Enjoy it, but let the Force guide you. You need to learn to

  accept your Jedi abilities, not fear them."

  "I can try anything?" Zekk said. "Anything I enjoy?"

  "I'm sure you can think of something, Zekk," Luke said.

  The dark-haired young man just smiled.

  Jedi trainees dragged a few more dried branches and pieces of dead wood

  from the surrounding jungle and piled it high in the courtyard.

  Master Luke Skywalker readied a bonfire while his students gathered to

  hear him speak.

  Jacen Solo ran a hand through his tousled hair, scratched an itch on

  his scalp, and settled down on the ledge beside his friend Tenel Ka.

  They had found seats on one of the stone blocks of the rebuilt

  pyramid's lower levels; from there they would have a good view of the

  fire and Jacen's uncle Luke.

  Jacen's twin sister Jaina, who loved to tinker with machines, had spent

  the afternoon with their Wookiee friend Lowbacca and his miniaturized

  translating droid, Em Teedee. They had worked beneath the Hapan

  passenger cruiser's navigational consoles, upgrading its starmaps and

  position-finding capabilities. As Princess of Hapes, the warrior girl

  Tenel Ka actually owned the Rock Dragon, but she preferred to let Jaina

  and Lowie pilot it.

  Now the two tinkerers and the tiny, silver droid hurried up to sit

  beside Jacen and Tenel Ka as four new students prepared to light the

  bonfire.

  Jaina still had a few smudges of grease on her cheeks and chin.

  Lowie's ginger-colored fur was ruffled, but they both looked

  satisfied.

  "So, the ship's up and working again?" Jacen asked. "There's no

  telling when we might need to grab it and go rescue somebody. We're

  Jedi Knights now, you know."

  Jaina gave an unladylike snort, as if insulted at the suggestion that

  she might not have left the ship in perfect working order. "Of course

  it's working. Rock Dragon's ready whenever we are."

  "Oh, my," Em Teedee said. "I do hope you aren't planning any

  emergencies. In future, I suggest that we avoid any adventures that

  might involve emergencies. Far too dangerous, if you ask me."

  "Come on, E
m Teedee," Jacen said. "We've upgraded your capabilities.

  Don't you want to test your limits?"

  "Indeed not," the little droid said from his place at Lowbacca's

  belt.

  The Wookiee chuffed and patted the droid good-naturedly.

  Tenel Ka's face remained solemn during this exchange-then again, she

  usually was serious, Jacen thought, even though he constantly tried to

  make her laugh. "I am ready for whatever circumstances dictate," she

  said. "We are now required to look at the fire and listen to Master

  Skywalker."

  "This is a fact," Jacen said with a chuckle, repeating Tenel Ka's own

  oft-used phrase.

  Earlier that afternoon, a ship had come in bearing a pair of Jedi

  Knights who had been trainees when Luke Skywalker founded his Jedi

  academy here. The two Jedi visitors, exhausted from a dangerous

  mission they had just completed, had gone quickly into the temple to

  refresh themselves. Not long afterward, Luke had announced a

  celebration for that evening. Jacen wondered eagerly what his uncle

  intended to talk about.

  Now the fire blazed high. Orange flames crackled through the pile of

  dead wood; spicy-smelling smokb waited upward from the burning lichens

  and mosses that clung to the underbrush. While the last few Jedi