Champions of the Force

by Kevin J. Anderson

  "The Dark Man can be everywhere," Streen said, leaning across the cluttered table. His frizzy gray hair still looked windblown. He fidgeted as he glanced around the room, as if afraid someone were watching.

  "There's no other place we can go," Cilghal said. "If Exar Kun can find us here, he can find us wherever we go. We must operate on the assumption that we can still fight him." She gazed at the candidates. She had taken great pains to develop her oratory skills as ambassador for Calamari. She had used her voice and her wits to great success in the past, and now she took advantage of her gift. "We have enough real problems to confront — there's no need to manufacture worse ones from our imagination."

  The others murmured in agreement.

  "Tionne," Cilghal said, "much of our plan depends on your knowledge of ancient Jedi lore. Tell us what you know about Exar Kun."

  Tionne sat up in a battered and uncomfortable chair beside one of the dilapidated tactical stations. Across her lap lay the double — boxed musical instrument on which she played old ballads to anyone who would listen.

  Tionne had only a small amount of Jedi potential. Master Skywalker had made that clear to her, but she would not be swayed from her resolve to become one of the new Jedi Knights. She had become enamored of Jedi legends,

  traveling from system to system, digging through ancient writings and folktales, compiling tales of the Jedi from thousands of years before the Dark Times.

  The Jedi Holocron had been a treasure trove, and Tionne had spent much of her time studying it, replaying forgotten legends, clarifying details. But the Holocron was destroyed when Master Skywalker had asked the simulated gatekeeper, the ancient Jedi Master Vodo — Siosk Baas, to tell of his student Exar Kun, who had rebuilt the

  Brotherhood of the Sith. ...

  Tionne flicked molten — silver hair over her shoulders and looked at the other trainees with her eerie mother — of — pearl eyes. Her lips were thin and pale, bloodless with tension.

  "It's very difficult to find verifiable legends from the Great Sith War. That was four thousand years ago, and it was incredibly devastating — but apparently the old Jedi Knights were ashamed of how they had failed to protect the galaxy. Many of the records were distorted or destroyed, but I think I've pieced together enough." She swallowed, then continued.

  "Kun seems to have built his primary stronghold on this jungle moon. He enslaved the Massassi race to build all these temples as focal points for his power."

  She looked around, sizing up the Jedi trainees. "In fact, this gathering reminds me of the Great Council on the planet Deneba, when most of the old Jedi Knights met to discuss the dark tide rising through the galaxy. Master Vodo — Siosk Baas — whicho had trained Exar Kun — became a martyour when he tried to turn his student back to the light side. When Master Vodo did not succeed, the other Jedi banded together in a massive strike force such as had never before been gathered.

  "Though Kun had enormous power, it seems that the key" — Tionne tapped the side of her instrument with a glistening fingernail — "the key was that the other Jedi combined their might. They fought together as a unit where all the pieces fit together, as components in a much larger machine powered by the Force.

  "I've found only sketchy information, but it seems that in the final battle the unified Jedi wiped out most of the jungles on Yavin 4, laying waste to everything in their efforts to destroy Exar Kun. Kun drained dry the life force of all his Massassi slaves in one last gambit. The ancient Jedi succeeded in destroying much of what he had built and obliterated Kun's body, but he somehow managed to preserve his spirit within the temples. For all these years."

  "Then we must finish the job," Kirana Ti said, standing up. She wore her reptilian body armor all the time now, unencumbered by a Jedi robe because she did not know when she might need to fight at a moment's notice.

  "I agree," Kam Solusar said. His gaunt face held the expression of a man who had long ago forgotten how to smile.

  "But how?" Streen said. "Thousands of Jedi could not obliterate the Dark Man. We are only twelve."

  "Yes," Kirana Ti said, "but this time Exar Kun doesn't have a race of enslaved people to draw upon. He has no resources but himself. Besides, Kun has already been defeated once — and he knows it."

  "And," Cilghal interjected, gesturing around the table, "all of us have trained together from the beginning. Master Skywalker made us to be a team. Leia called us champions of the Force — and that is what we must be."

  * * *

  Standing at the pinnacle of the Great Temple, Luke Skywalker's shimmering form could not feel the cool twilight breeze as the lumbering orange hulk of the gas giant cast fading light across the jungles. Luke watched a flock of batlike creatures take to the air and swarm across the treetops in search of night insects.

  He remembered his nightmare when Exar Kun, disguised as Anakin Skywalker, had urged Luke to dabble in the dark side. Against the backdrop of history Luke had seen the labors of the broken Massassi erecting mammoth temples, working until crushed by sheer labor. Luke had cast off that nightmare, but he had not interpreted its warning soon enough.

  Now he turned to see the hooded form of Kun standing black against the jungle landscape, but the sight no longer had the power to make him afraid. "You're growing bolder, Exar Kun, to keep showing yourself to me — especially when your attempts to destroy my body continue to fail."

  In the aftermath of the reptilian creatures' attack, Luke had watched Cilghal tend his body's minor wounds, cleaning them and binding them with the meticulous care and empathy he had sensed from her first days at the Jedi academy. Cilghal was a born Jedi healer.

  She had spoken aloud to Luke's spirit, though she couldn't see him. "We will do whatever we can, Master Skywalker. Please keep faith in us."

  Luke had indeed maintained his faith. He felt it throbbing within him as he confronted Exar Kun atop the temple, where the Sith Lord and Kyp Durron had defeated Luke once before.

  "I have been toying with you." Kun waved his silhouette hand. "Nothing will affect my plans. Some of your students are already mine. The others will soon follow."

  "I don't think so," Luke said with fresh certainty. "I have instructed them well. You might show them easy ways to glory, but your tricks carry a high price. I have taught them diligence, confidence in their own worth and abilities. What you offer, Exar Kun, is mere parlor magic. I have given them the true strength and meaning of the Force."

  "Do you think I don't know of the laughable plans they make against me?" Kun said. The spirit of the Dark Lord seemed to be growing more full of bluster and threats. Perhaps his confidence was shaken.

  "It doesn't matter," Luke answered. "They will defeat you anyway. Your imagined power is your weakness, Exar Kun."

  "And your faith in your friends is yours!" Kun snapped back.

  Luke laughed, feeling his strength and determination increase. "I've heard talk like that before. It was proved wrong then, and it will be proved wrong now."

  The black outline of Exar Kun rippled in an unseen breeze. As the shadow vanished, Kun's last words were, "We shall see!"

  Standoff.

  Han Solo felt cold sweat spring from his forehead as he looked out from the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. In front of him the Sun Crusher powered up its supernova torpedo launcher.

  Han pounded his fist on the console. "Hold it, kid!" he shouted. "Just hold it. I thought you were my friend."

  "If you were my friend," Kyp's voice croaked through the speaker, "you wouldn't try to stop me. You know what the Empire did to my life, to my family. The Empire lied to me one last time — and now even my brother is dead."

  At the copilot's station Lando scrambled at the controls. His big eyes flicked back and forth, and he turned to Han, waving frantically for him to shut off the voice pickup.

  "Han," he whispered, "remember when you and Kyp took the Sun Crusher away from Maw Installation? And Luke and I were there waiting to intercept you?"

  Han nodded
, not sure what Lando was getting at. "Sure."

  "Back then we linked the ships together because the Falcon's navicomputer wouldn't work." He raised his eyebrows and spoke very slowly. "Listen ... we've still got the Sun Crusher's control codes in here."

  Suddenly Han understood. "Can you do anything with that? You're not even familiar with the Sun Crusher's systems."

  "Don't have much choice, do we, buddy?"

  "All right," Han said in a needlessly low voice, because the voice pickup was switched off. "I'll keep him talking — you work to deactivate the Sun Crusher." Lando, with a skeptical but determined frown, continued his programming.

  Han toggled on the comm system again. "Kyp, don't you remember when we went turbo — skiing at the poles of Coruscant? You led me down one of the dangerous paths, but I went after you because I thought you were going to fall on your face. Don't you remember that?"

  Kyp didn't answer, but Han knew he had struck home.

  "Kid, who got you out of the spice mines of Kessel?" he said. "Who broke you out of the detention cell on the Gorgon? Who was with you during the escape from the Maw? Who promised to do everything he could to make your life worth living again after your years of misery?"

  Kyp answered in a halting voice. "It didn't work."

  "But why not, kid? What went wrong? What happened on Yavin 4? I know you and Luke didn't get along — was"

  "It had nothing to do with Luke Skywalker," Kyp snapped so defensively that Han knew it wasn't true. "There in the temples I learned things Master Skywalker would never teach. I learned how to be strong. I learned how to fight the Empire, to turn my own anger into a weapon."

  "Look, kid," Han said, "I don't claim to understand anything about the Force. In fact I once said it was a hokey religion full of mumbo jumbo. But I do know that what you're saying sounds dangerously close to the dark side."

  After a deep pause Kyp said haltingly, "Han ... I — was

  "Got it!" Lando whispered.

  Han nodded, and Lando punched in the control sequence.

  A rapid succession of lights twinkled on the control panel as the override command was transmitted across the narrow bridge of space. In the black gulf lit only by a backwash of dull light from the exploded red — dwarf star, the Sun Crusher suddenly went dark: the lights in its cockpit, the aiming beacons on its laser cannons, and the blaze of plasma at the end of its toroidal torpedo generator.

  "Yes!" Lando shouted. Han gave a whoop of triumph, and the two of them reached out to slap their hands together.

  "Let me talk to him," Han said. "Does he still have power to his comm system?"

  "Channel open," Lando said. "But I don't think he's very happy — was

  "You tricked me!" Kyp's voice screamed through the speaker panel. "You claimed to be my friend — comand now you've betrayed me. It's just like Exar Kun said. Friends betray you. A Jedi has no time for friendship. You should all die."

  Astonishingly, the power in the Sun Crusher surged back to life again, despite Lando's overrides. The lights came on in a blaze.

  "It's not my fault!" Lando squawked, scrambling to reroute the command. "I didn't know he could bypass it so fast!"

  "Kyp can do things with the Force that you and I can't understand," Han said.

  The energy torpedo launcher fired up with a flare of intense plasma, brighter than before, ready to launch at the Falcon.

  And this time Kyp did not hesitate.

  Streen dozed cross — legged on the cold flagstone floor before Master Skywalker. He folded his arms over his knees, comfortable in the many — pocketed jumpsuit he had brought with him from his lonely days as a gas prospector on Bespin. He could no longer smell the bitter sulfurous taint of rich plumes of deep — layer gases.

  Now Streen had a greater mission — to guard Master Skywalker.

  Low — slanted light from outside elongated the shadows in the grand audience chamber. Twelve candles, one placed by each of the Jedi trainees, flickered around Luke's body, shedding a faint but protective glow into the motionless air. The small bright points glittered as the darkness gathered all around.

  Streen muttered to himself. No, he would not listen to the Dark Man's words. No, he would not serve Exar Kun's purposes. No, he would not do anything to harm Master Skywalker. No!

  In his lap, cool and hard against his callused hands, he held the handle of Luke's lightsaber.

  This time he could fight it. This time the Dark Man would not win. Some of the other Jedi trainees had expressed grave misgivings about letting Streen near Master Skywalker, especially armed with a lightsaber. But Streen had begged for his chance at restitution, and Kirana Ti had spoken on his behalf.

  The others would watch over him. Master Skywalker would be in danger, but they had to take the risk.

  Streen let the fuzzy caress of sleep work its way into his mind. His grizzled head nodded to his chest. Whispering voices sounded like breezes in his mind, forming gentle words, soothing phrases ... cold promises.

  The words demanded that he wake up, but Streen resisted them, not knowing if they were evil suggestions or the insistences of his companions. When Streen felt he had waited long enough, he allowed himself to snap awake.

  The voices fell silent as he blinked his eyes. Another voice, external this time, replaced the silence. "Wake up, my student. The winds are blowing."

  Streen focused on the black form of Exar Kun in the center of the throne room. In the flickering candlelight and dim rays from the dying day, Streen could see chiseled features on the onyx silhouette, more detailed than he had ever seen before on the shadow of the Dark Man.

  Exar Kun turned a well — defined face toward him, completely ebony as if molded from lava stone: high cheekbones, haughty eyes, a thin, angry mouth. Long black hair like carbon wires swept across his shoulder, gathered in a thick ponytail. Padded armor covered his body, and the pulsing tattoo of a black sun

  burned from his forehead.

  Streen climbed slowly to his feet. He felt calm and strong, angry at how the Dark Man had set a sharp hook in his own weakness and had dragged him along. "I won't do your bidding, Dark Man," he said.

  Exar Kun laughed. "And how do you propose to resist? You are already mine."

  "If you believe that," Streen said, and took a deep breath, strengthening his voice, "then you have made your first mistake." He brought up the handle of Luke's lightsaber, igniting it with a loud snap — hiss.

  Exar Kun's shadow flinched backward, much to Streen's surprise and satisfaction.

  "Good," Kun said with false bravado, "now take the weapon and cleave Skywalker in two. Let us be done with this."

  Streen took one step toward Exar Kun, holding the green lightsaber before him. "This blade is meant for you, Dark Man."

  "If you think that weapon will have any effect on me," Kun said, "perhaps you should ask your friend Gantoris — or have you forgotten what happened to him when he defied me?"

  A vision flashed through Streen's mind: Gantoris's crisped corpse incinerated from the inside out, his body turned to ash from the incredible fires of the dark side. Kun must have intended for that memory to drive Streen to despair; Gantoris had been his friend; he and Gantoris were the first two trainees Master Skywalker had found on his Jedi search.

  But rather than causing panic or dismay, the memory increased Streen's determination. He strode forward, staring down the shadowy man. "You are not wanted here, Exar Kun," he said. To his continued surprise the shadow of the ancient Sith Lord drifted back from him, down the promenade.

  "I can find other tools, Streen, if you prove difficult. I will show you no mercy when I have gained control once more. My Sith brothers will use the power stored within this network of temples. If you defy me, I can find new ways of inflicting pain far beyond the capabilities of your imagination — and you will endure all of them!"

  Kun's shadow drifted farther away ... and a tall figure emerged from the left stone stairwell into the grand audience chamber: Kirana Ti clad
in her polished reptilian armor, her muscles rippling in the pale candlelight, her curves making her look supple yet deadly.

  "Are you running away, Exar Kun?" Kirana Ti said. "Frightened off so easily?"

  Streen held his position, still gripping the lightsaber.

  "Another foolhardy student," Kun said, whirling to face her. "I would have come to you in time. The witches of Dathomir would be fine additions to a new Sith Brotherhood."

  "You'll never get a chance to ask them, Exar Kun. You are trapped here. You won't leave this chamber." She pressed forward to intimidate him by her very closeness.

  Kun's shadow distorted, but he held his ground. "You cannot threaten me." Kun loomed over her.

  Streen felt a stab of cold fear at the movement, but Kirana Ti ducked swiftly, fluidly, into a fighting stance. She reached to her waist and snatched one of the tools hanging there.

  A loud crackle seared the air, and she stood holding another ignited lightsaber. A long amethyst — and — white blade extended from the handle, humming like an angry insect. She thrashed the lightsaber from side to side.

  "Where did you get that weapon?" Kun demanded.

  "It belonged to Gantoris," she said. "He once tried to fight you and failed." She slashed with the lightsaber, and Kun flinched back toward Streen. "But I will succeed."

  Kirana Ti stalked toward the platform where Luke's body lay, where Streen stood on guard with the other lightsaber. Kun was trapped between them.

  Another Jedi trainee emerged from the right — side stairwell — grim and wiry Kam Solusar. "And if she fails," he said, "I will pick up the lightsaber and fight you." He marched forward, closing the distance to join her.

  Then Tionne came from the opposite stairwell, throwing her challenge at Exar Kun as she walked up to the platform. "And I will fight you as well."

  Cilghal stepped in with Jacen and Jaina, each holding one of her hands. "And we will fight you. We will all fight you, Exar Kun."

  The remaining Jedi trainees flooded into the chamber, converging in a group that surrounded the Dark Lord of the Sith.