Star Wars_ The Jedi Academy Trilogy 02_ Dark Apprentice - Kevin J. Anderson [103]
“I still don’t understand why you want to stay down in those murky lower levels,” Han said.
Daykim swung one leg into the ventilation duct and looked around. “It’s very simple,” he said. “Up here I was just a file clerk—down there I am a king!”
With a last smile for all of them, Daykim vanished into the ventilation ducts. They heard him thumping and scrambling as he disappeared down the access tubes.
“Well, everything turned out right after all,” Threepio said. “Isn’t this wonderful?”
In answer Han and Leia both glared at him.
“We want a story!” the twins said in unison.
27
Kyp Durron brought his stolen ship into orbit around the small forest moon of Endor, where the second Death Star had been destroyed.
Ignoring the sensors on board his stolen Z-95 Headhunter, he let his eyes fall closed. He reached out with his sense ability, seeking across the entire landscape for shadows or ripples in the Force. He had to find the last resting place of the only other Dark Lord of the Sith he knew of.
Darth Vader.
Exar Kun, who had lived long before Vader, was pleased to know that the Lords of the Sith had continued for millennia. But Kyp still felt driven to find answers to the clamoring questions in his mind.
Master Skywalker said that Darth Vader, his own father, had returned to the light side in the end. From this Kyp concluded that the powers of the Sith were not permanently connected with evil. That gave him a thread of hope. He recognized full well that the dark spirit of Exar Kun had lied to him, or at least misled him. The risk was terrible, but the reward would benefit the entire galaxy.
If he succeeded.
Here on Endor, Kyp felt he could hide from the watchful eyes of Exar Kun. He didn’t know how far Kun’s power extended, but he didn’t think the ancient Sith Lord could leave Yavin 4. Not yet at least.
Kyp instinctively worked the controls of Mara Jade’s fighter, bringing the Headhunter lower as he scanned the forests. After the Rebel celebration of their victory over the Emperor, Luke Skywalker had built a pyre for his father near the towering trees, not far from the Ewok villages. He had watched the roaring flames consume the remnants of Darth Vader’s mechanical attire.
But perhaps something had survived.…
As the Headhunter cruised over the tops of the immense Ewok father trees, Kyp searched with his mind, ironically making use of the exercises Master Skywalker had taught him, how to reach out and touch all life-forms.
He caught the stirrings of the furry Ewoks in their tree cities. He sensed large predators on the prowl: one humanoid behemoth, a giant Corax, crashed through the trees, black hair swinging from side to side as he searched for Ewok dwellings low enough to grab.
As he flew onward, Kyp’s mind ranged far and wide across the Endor wilderness. Then he felt a ripple, an echo of something that definitely did not … belong.
Everything else seemed to have its place, but this did not conform. A stain that seemed to absorb all other senses, casting waves of leftover darkness that caused the creatures on Endor to avoid the place instinctively.
Kyp changed course and arrowed to the coordinates, circling once until he found an appropriate clearing. The repulsorlifts whined, and his landing jets kicked up fallen forest debris as he landed the Headhunter in the underbrush.
Afraid and yet eager, Kyp swung out of the cockpit and hopped down, landing with a crunch in the twigs and dead leaves. The breeze died, as if the evening forest were holding its breath around him. Silvery planetshine trickled through the dense leaves, lighting the clearing with a wan, milky glow.
Kyp took four steps and stopped before the scorched site of Vader’s funeral pyre.
The ground surrounding the old burned area remained dead and brown. Though the thick forests of Endor were tenacious and fast-growing, no plants dared approach the scar—even after seven years.
The bonfire had been large