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By Root 243 0

and rounded on the front. It looked like a face, with two yellow optical sensors unevenly spaced near the top, a more or less triangular protrusion toward the center, and a perforated oblong on the lower portion that Jacen took to be a speaker.

Chewbacca fiddled with something at the back of the device, and the yellow eyes flickered to life. A thin metallic voice, careful and correct, issued from the tiny speaker. "Greetings. I am a Miniaturized Translator Droid-Em Teedee-specializing in human-Wookiee relations. I am fluent in over six forms of communication. My primary programmed function is to translate Wookiee speech into other humanoid languages." It paused expectantly and then added, "Might I be of assistance?"

Jacen laughed. "It can't be!"

Jaina gasped. "Sounds just like Threepio!"

"Almost," their father replied, his mouth twisted in wry amusement. He scratched under his collar with one lazy finger. "A little too much like Threepio, for my money. But since he did most of the programming on Em Teedee, I couldn't talk him out of it." He shrugged apologetically.

"Why don't you kids try it out during the midday meal? Chewbacca and I still have some business to discuss with Luke, then well take off in the Falcon later this afternoon. We've got to see Lando at his mining station."

The common room the Jedi trainees used as a mess hall was filled with wooden tables of various heights. The seats-chairs, benches, nests, ledges, cushions, and stools-came in a broad variety of shapes and sizes to accommodate the differing customs and anatomies of human and alien students.

The plantlike members of the Jedi academy had gone outside to the bright sun-washed steps of the Great Temple, where they could soak up light from Yavin's white sun and photosynthesize for nutrients, adding small packets of minerals into their digestive orifices. Inside the mess hall, though, dozens of unusual species sat together eating exotic foods particular to their own kind.

Jacen followed a step behind, still chattering about the old Massassi temples, as Jaina found a table at one end of the large hall that had a chair appropriate for Lowbacca. So far Jacen had been unable to elicit more than a few nods and gestures from the Wookiee, who seemed deep in thought, intent on absorbing the smells, sights, and sounds around him.

Determined to start a real conversation with the new trainee, Jacen cast about in his mind for a good question. So, Lowie, how much stuff do you need to move in? Naw, that was a stupid question.

How about, How old are you? No, that would get him only a short answer.

And anyway, their father had told them that earlier this morning. Lowie was nineteen, barely an adolescent by Wookiee standards. Maybe something like, How did you know you wanted to become a Jedi? Yes, that was good.

But before he could pose the question, the solid, muscular form of Tenel Ka swung into the seat next to him, across from Lowbacca.

"New student," she said, acknowledging Lowbacca in the brief, direct way that was so characteristic of her.

"Lowie," Jacen said, "this is our friend Tenel Ka, from the planet of Dathomir."

"And this," Jaina responded, making the introductions for her side of the table, "is Lowbacca, nephew of Chewbacca, from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk."

Tenel Ka rose formally and inclined her head, tossing her red-gold hair.

"Lowbacca of Kashyyyk, I greet you," she said, and re sumed her seat.

Lowbacca nodded in return and uttered three short growls.

Jacen waited for a moment, looking at the little translator droid clipped to Lowie's belt, but nothing happened.

"Well?" Jaina said expectantly. "You going to translate for its, Em Teedee?"

"Goodness me, Mistress Jaina, I am sorry," the tiny droid replied in a flustered, mechanical voice. "Oh, how dreadful! My initial opportunity to perform my primary function for Master Lowbacca, and I've failed him. I assure you, masters and mistresses all, that from now on I will endeavor to make each translation as speedily and as eloquently as possible-"

Lowbacca interrupted the translator