Star Wars - The Corellian Trilogy - Assault At Selonia

by Allen McBride

  Here is a scene showing the extent of the alien menace On an outer deck of a vast battle cruiser called the Shriwi'r, Dev Sibwarra rested his slim brown hand on a prisoner's left shoulder. "It'll be all right," he said softly. The other human's fear beat at his mind like a three-tailed lash.

  "There's no pain. You have a wonderful surprise ahead of you.

  Wonderful indeed, a life without hunger, cold, or selfish desire.

  The prisoner, an imperial of much lighter complexion than Dev, slumped in the entechment chair. He'd given up protesting, and his breath came in gasps. Pliable bands secured his forelimbs, neck, and kneeut only for balance.

  With his nervous system deionized at the shoulders, he couldn't struggle. A slender intravenous tube dripped pale blue magnetizing solution into each of his carotid arteries while tiny servopumps hummed. It only took a few mils of magsol to attune the tiny, fluctuating electromagnetic fields of human brain waves to the Ssi-ruuvi entechment apparatus.

  Behind Dev, Master Firwirrung trilled a question in Ssiruuvi. "Is it calmed yet?"

  Dev sketched a bow to his master and switched from human speech to Ssi-ruuvi. "Calm enough," he sang back. "He's almost ready."

  Sleek, russet scales protected Firwirrung's two-meter length from beaked muzzle to muscular tail tip, and a prominent black V crest marked his forehead. Not large for a Ssiruu, he was still growing, with only a few age-scores where scai nau ucgull w `cparaw un ms nanusome cnesl. rinwirFrung swung a broad, glowing white metal catchment arc down to cover the prisoner from midchest to nose. Dev could just peer over it and watch the man's pupils dilate. At any moment "Now," Dev announced.

  Firwirrung touched a control. His muscular tail twitched with pleasure. The fleet's capture had been good today.

  Alongside his master, Dev would work far into the night. Before entechment, prisoners were noisy and dangerous. Afterward, their life energies powered droids of Ssi-ruuvi choosing.

  The catchment arc hununed up to pitch. Dev backed away. Inside that round human skull, a magsol-drugged brain was losing control.

  Though Master Firwirrung assured him that the transfer of incorporeal energy was painless, every prisoner screamed.

  As did this one, when Firwirrung threw the catchment arc switch.

  The arc boomed out a sympathetic vibration, as brain energy leaped to an electromagnet perfectly attuned to magsol. Through the Force rippled an ululation of indescribable anguish.

  Dev staggered and clung to the knowledge his masters had given him The prisoners only thought they felt pain. He only thought he sensed their pain. By the time the body screamed, all of a subject's energies had jumped to the catchment arc. The screaming body already was dead.

  THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA by Dave Wolverton Setting Four years after Rettuw of the Jedi One of the most interesting developments in Bantam's Star Wars novels is that in their storyline, Han Solo and Frincess Lela start a family. This tale reveals how the couple originally got together. Wishing to strengthen the fledgling New Republic by bringing in powel allies, Lela opens talks with the Hapes consortium of more than sixty worlds. But the consortium is mled by the Queen Mother, who, to Han's dismay, wants Lela to many her son, Irince Isoider. Before this action-packed story is over, Luke will join forces with Isoider against a group of Force-trained `witches" and face a deadly foe.

  In this scene, Luke is searching for Jedi lore and finas more than he bargained for jIU ul yl1IlL1CI 11lL LAJ, diately Artoo caught a signal. Images flashed in the air before the droid an ancient throne room where, one by one, jedi came before their high master to give reports. Yet the bolo was fragmented, so thoroughly erased that Luke got only bits and piecea blue-skinned man describing details of a grueling space battle against pirateers; a yellow-eyed m'i'lek with lashing headtails who told of discovering a plot to kill an ambassador. A date and time flashed on the bolo vid before each report. The report was nearly four hundred standard years old.

  Then Yoda appeared on the video, gazing up at the throne. His color was more vibrantly green than Luke remembered, and he did not use his walking stick. At middle age, Yoda had looked almost perky, carefree-not the bent, troubled old Jedi Luke had known. Most of the audio was erased, but through the background hiss Yoda clearly said, "We tried to free the Chu'unthor from Dathomir, but were repulsed by the witches . . . skirmish, with Masters Ora'aton and Vulatan. . . .

  Fourteen acolytes killed . . . go back to retrieve The audio hissed away, and soon the bolo image dissolved to blue static with popping lights.

  They went up topside, found that night had fallen while they worked underground. Their Whiphid guide soon returned, dragging the body of a gutted snow demon. The demon's white talons curled in the air, and its long purple tongue snaked out from between its massive fangs. Luke was amazed that the Whiphid could haul such a monster, yet the Whiphid held the demon's long hairy tail in one hand and managed to pull it back to camp.

  There, Luke stayed the night with the Whiphids in a huge shelter made from the rib cage of a motmot, covered over with hides to keep out the wind. The Whiphids built a bonfire and roasted the snow demon, and the young danced while the elders played their claw harps. As Luke sat, watching the writhing flames and listening to the twang of harps, he meditated.

  "The future you will see, and the past. Old friends long forgotten . . ." Those were the words Yoda had said long ago while training Luke to peer beyond the mists of time.

  Luke looked up at the rib bones of the motmot. The Whiphids had carved stick letters into the bone, ten and twelve meters in the air, giving the lineage of their ancestors.

  Luke could not read the letters, but they seemed to dance in the firelight, as if they were sticks and stones falling from the y. i DC no oones curveo wwarci mm, and Luke toiloweci the curve of bones with his eyes. The tumbling sticks and boulders seemed to gyrate, all of them falling toward him as if they would crush him. He could see boulders hurtling through the air, too, smashing toward him. Luke's nostrils flared, and even Toola's chill could not keep a thin fllni of perspiration from dotting his forehead. A vision came to Luke then.

  Luke stood in a mountain fortress of stone, looking over a plain with a sea of dark forested hills beyond, and a storm rose-a magnificent wind that brought with it towering walls of black clouds and dust, trees hurtling toward him and twisting through the sky. The clouds thundered overhead, filled with purple flames, obliterating all sunlight, and Luke could feel a malevolence hidden in those clouds and knew that they had been raised through the power of the dark side of the Force.

  Dust and stones whistled through the air like autumn leaves. Luke tried to hold on to the stone parapet overlooking the plain to keep from being swept from the fortress walls.

  Winds pounded in his ears like the roar of an ocean, howling.

  It was as if a storm of pure dark Force raged over the countryside, and suddenly, amid the towering clouds of darkness that thundered toward him, Luke could hear laughing, the sweet sound of women laughing. He looked above into the dark clouds, and saw the women borne through the air along with the rocks and debris, like motes of dust, laughing. A voice seemed to whisper, "the witches of Dathomir."

  HEIR TO THE EMPIRE DARK FORCE RISING THE LAST COMMAND by Timothy Zahn Setting Five years aftet R'tw of the Jedi This 1 bestselling trilog' introduces two legendary forces of evil into the Star Wars literary pantheon Grand Admiral Thrawn has taken control of the Imperial jicet in the years since the destruction of the Death Star, and the mysterious Joruus C'baoth is a fearsome Jedi Master who has been seduced by the dark side. Han and Lela have now been married for about a year, and as the story begins, she is pregnant with twins.

  Thrawn's plan is to crush the Rebellion and resurrect UL5'trU iw Uru wttfl uuur fl L' the Dark Master will get Han and Lela `s Jedi children to mold as he wishes. For as readers of this magnificent trilogy will see, Luke Sk"walker is not the last of the old Jedi. He is the first of the new.

  In this scene from Heir to the Empire, T
hrawn and C'baoth meet for the first time For a long moment the old man continued to stare at Thrawn, a dozen strange expressions flicking in quick succession across his face. "Come. We will talk."

  "Thank you," Thrawn said, inclining his head slightly.

  "May i ask who we have the honor of addressing?"

  "Of course." The old man's face was abruptly regal again, and when he spoke his foice rang out in the silence of the crypt. "I am the Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth."

  Pellaeon inhaled sharply, a cold shiver running up his back.

  "Joruus C'baoth?" he breathed. "But-" He broke off. C'baoth looked at him, much as Pellaeon himself might look at a junior officer who has spoken out of turn. "Come," he repeated, turning back to Thrawn. "We will talk."

  He led the way out of the crypt and back into the sunshine.

  Several small knots of people had gathered in the square in their absence, huddling well back from both the crypt and the shuttle as they whispered nervously together.

  With one exception. Standing directly in their path a few meters away was one of the two guards C'baoth had ordered out of the crypt.

  On his face was an expression of barely controlled fury; in his hands, cocked and ready, was his crossbow.

  "You destroyed his home," C'baoth said, almost conversationally.

  "Doubtless he would like to exact vengeance."

  The words were barely out of his mouth when the guard suddenly snapped the crossbow up and fired. Instinctively, Pellaeon ducked, raising his blasterAnd three meters from the Imperials the bolt came to an abrupt halt in midair.

  Pellaeon stared at the hovering piece of wood and metal, his brain only slowly catching up with what had just happened.

  "They are our guests," C'baoth told the guard in a voice clearly intended to reach everyone in the square. "They will be treated accordingly."

  With a crackle of splintering wood, the crossbow bolt shattered, the pieces dropping to the ground. Slowly, reluc1',"`,",w, ul tll UUIIl1II with a now impotent rage. Thrawn let him stand there another second like that, then gestured to Rukh. The Noghri raised his blaster and fire And in a blur of motion almost tco fast to see, a flat stone detached itself from the ground and hurled itself directly into the path of the shot, shattering spectacularly as the blast hit it.

  Thrawn spun to face C'baoth, his face a mirror of surprise and anger. "C'baoth-!"

  "These are my people, Grand Admiral Thrawn," the other cut him off, his voice forged from quiet steel. "Not yours; mine. If there is punishment to be dealt out, I will do it."

  For a long moment the two men again locked eyes. Then, with an obvious effort, Thrawn regained his composure. "Of course, Master C'baoth," he said. "Forgive me."

  C'baoth nodded. "Better. Much better." He looked past Thrawn, dismissed the guard with a nod. "Come," he said, looking back at the Grand Admiral. "We will talk."

  The Jedi Academy Thiogy JEDI SEARCH DARK APPRENTICE CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE by Kevin J. Anderson Setting Seven years after Re-i of the Jedi In order to assure the continuation of the Jedi Knights, Luke Si;,walker has decided to start a training facility a Jedi Academy He will gather Force-sensitive students who show potential as prospective Jedi and serve as their mentor, as Jedi Masters Obi-Wan )nobi and Yoda did for him. Han and Lela's twins are now toddlers, and there is a third Jedi child the infant Anaktn, named after Luke and Lela's father. In this trilogy, we discover the eustence of a powerpil imperial doomsday weapon, the hornfring Sun Crisher-which will soon become the centerpiece of a titanic struggle between Luke Sktwalker and his most brilliant Jedi Academy student, who is delving dangerously into the dark side.

  In this scene from the first novel Jedi Search, Luke vocalizes his concept of a new Jedi order to a distinguished assembly of New Republic leaders t' II" u""lwtu ill" lung tamp, ue ieii an cy wrn toward him. A hush fell over the assembly. Luke Skswalker, the lone remaining Jedi Master, almost never took part in governmental proceedings.

  "I have an important matter to address," he said. For a moment he was reminded of when he had walked alone into the dank corridors of Jabba the Hutt's palaceut this time there were no piglike Gamorrean guards that he could manipulate with a twist of his fingers and a touch of the Force.

  Mon Mothma gave him a soft, mysterious smile and gestured for him to take a central position. "The words of a Jedi Knight are always welcome to the New Republic," she said.

  Luke tried not to look pleased. She had provided the perfect opening for him. "In the Old Republic," he said, "Jedi Knights were the protectors and guardians of all. For a thousand generations the Jedi used the powers of the Force to guide, defend, and provide support for the rightful government of worldbefore the dark days of the Empire came, and the Jedi Knights were killed."

  He let his words hang, then took another breath. "Now we have a New Republic. The Empire appears to be defeated.

  We have founded a new government based upon the old, but F let us hope we learn from our mistakes. Before, an entire order of Jedi watched over the Republic, offering strength.

  Now I am the only Jedi Master who remains.

  "Without that order of protectors to provide a backbone of strength for the New Republic, can we survive? Will we be able to weather the storms and the difficulties of forging a new union? Until now we have suffered severe struggles-but in the future they will be seen as nothing more than birth pangs."

  Before the other senators could disagree with that, Luke oontinued. "Our people had a common foe in the Empire, and we must not let our defenses lapse just because we have internal problems. More to the point, what will happen when we begin squabbling among ourselves over petty matters? The old Jedi helped to mediate many types of disputes. What if there are no Jedi Knights to protect us in the difficult times ahead?"

  Luke moved under the diffracting rainbow colors from the crystal light overhead. He took his time to fix his gaze on all the senators present; he turned his attention to Lela last Her eyes were wide but supportive. He had not discussed his idea with her beforehand.

  "My sister is undergoing Jedi training. She has a great candidates to be trained as young Jedi. In recent years I have come to know a woman named Mara Jade, who is now unifying the smugglerthe former smugglers," he amended, "into an organization that can support the needs of the New Republic. She also has a talent for the Force. I have encountered others in my travels."

  Another pause. The audience was listening so far. "But are these the only ones? We already know that the ability to use the Force is passed from generation to generation. Most of the Jedi were killed in the Emperor's purge-but could he possibly have eradicated all of the descendants of those Knights? I myself was unaware of the potential power within me until Obi-Wan Kenobi taught me how to use it. My sister Lela was similarly unaware.

  "How many people are abroad in this galaxy who have a comparable strength in the Force, who are potential members of a new order of Jedi Knights, but are unaware of who they are?"

  Luke looked at them again. "In my brief search I have already discovered that there are indeed some descendants of former Jedi. I have come here to ask"-he turned to gesture toward Mon Mothma, swept his hands across the people gathered there in the chamber-"for two things.

  "First, that the New Republic, officially sanction my search for those with a hidden talent for the Force, to seek them out and try to bring them to our service. For this I will need some help."

  Admiral Ackbar interrupted, blinking his huge fish eyes and turning his head. "But if you yourself did not know your power when you were young, how will these other people know? How will you find them, Jedi Skywalker?"

  Luke folded his hands in front of him. "Several ways.

  First, with the help of two dedicated droids who will spend their days searching through the Imperial City databases, we may find likely candidates, people who have experienced miraculous strokes of luck, whose lives seem filled with incredible coincidences. We could look for people who seem unusually charismatic or those whom
legend credits with working miracles. These couldall be unconscious manifestations of a skill with the Force." Luke held up another finger "As well, the droids could search the database for forgotten descendants of known Jedi -- -. ".",L' leads."

  "And what will you yourself be doing?" Mon Mothma asked, shifting in her robes.

  "I've already found several candidates I wish to investigate. All I ask right now is that you agree this is something we should pursue, that the search for Jedi be conducted by others and not just myself."

  Mon Mothma sat up straighter in her central sea. "I think we can agree to that without further discussion." She looked around to the other senators, seeing them now agreement.

  "Tell us your second request."

  Luke stood taller. This was most important to him. He saw Lela stiffen.

  "If sufficient candidates are found who have potential for using the Force, I wish to be allowed-with the New Republic's blessing-to establish in some appropriate place an intensive training center, a Jedi academy, if you will. Under my direction we can help these students discover their abilities, to focus and strengthen their power.

  Ultimately, this academy would provide a oore group that could allow us to restore the Jedi Knights as protectors of the New Republic."

  CHILDREN OF THE JEDI by Barbara Hambly Setting Eight years after Return of the Jedi The Star Wars characters face a menace from the glory days of the Empire when a thirty-year-old automated imperial Dreadnaught comes to 4fr and begins its grim mission to gather forces and annihilate a long-forgotten stronghold of Jedi children. When Luke is whisked onboard, he begins to communicate with the brave Jedi Knight who paralyzed the ship decades ago, and gave her ire in the process.

  Now she is part.of the vessel, `zisting in its artuicial intelligence core, and guiding Luke through one of the most unusual adventures he has ever had.

  in this scene, Luke discovers that an evil presence is gathering, one that will force him to join the battle Like See-Threepio, Nichos Marr sat in the outer room of the suite to which Cray had been assigned, in the power-down mode that was the droid equivalent of rest.