Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 01_ Heirs of the Force - Kevin J. Anderson [29]
"It is a possibility," Tenel Ka said, without much enthusiasm.
They were all tired, Jaina knew. But her mind raced with the excitement of this new thought. She made a quick decision. "Okay, let's go back to the academy. I want to make some measurements. We'll call it a day."
Jacen sighed with relief. "I think that's been your best suggestion in hours."
Back again the next afternoon, Jacen lay flat on his stomach, his chin resting on one clenched fist as he surveyed the moist ground beneath a tangle of low, thick bushes. He left his feet sticking out from beneath the bushes so that the others could locate him easily should they look up from their work-though there was little chance of that. From behind him he could hear thumping and clinking as Jaina labored to install the hyper-drive in the TIE fighter.
A thick splat told him that Tenel Ka and Lowbacca were applying sealant over the hole patch at the base of the reattached solar panel. The others were all busy, leaving Jacen free to hunt for "missing parts" again.
He watched, fascinated, as a leaf-shaped creature that matched the blue-green color of the foliage around him attached itself to a branch. It extended a long mottled brown tongue that flattened against the twig in a perfect camouflage. Jacen could sense the leaf creature's anticipation.
Soon a crowd of minute insects, drawn by a smell Jacen could not discern, landed on the "branch" and became stuck fast. Jacen chuckled and shook his head as the leaf creature retracted its tongue with an audible fwoookt.
With nothing interesting to be seen on the ground, he gave the bush a small shake once the leaf creature departed. He was rewarded with a hissing rustle as a dislodged object fell near his elbow. He picked it up.
It was an Imperial insignia.
He turned the metallic object over in his hand, but then he saw a familiar shimmer at the edge of his gaze, and he reflexively grabbed for it. Jacen wriggled backward out of the bushes, stood, and bounded over to the TIE fighter.
"Look what I found!" he crowed. His sister's lower half protruded at an awkward angle from the cockpit, while she was apparently attempting to connect some part of the hyperdrive behind the pilot's seat.
Her muffled voice drifted out to him. "Just a moment. I need a flash heater."
Tenel Ka passed a small tool in from the other side of the open cockpit.
She and Lowbacca, wiping sealant from their hands, came around to see what Jacen had discovered.
"A brooch of some sort?" Tenel Ka asked, examining it closely.
Jacen shook his head. "An Imperial insignia. Came off a uniform of some kind."
"There," Jaina said, extracting herself from the cockpit of the TIE
fighter and jumping down beside them. "That should do it."
Jacen handed her the insignia, and she nodded absently. "Look what else I found," he said, holding up his left arm, which was wrapped in a glowing shimmer.
Jaina made a sound somewhere between a growl and a laugh, and backed away. "Great. Just what we need-another crystal snake that can get loose."
Jacen used a tactic he knew his sister couldn't resist. "Oh," he said, letting disappointment show. "It's just that you've always been so good at designing things-I thought you could come up with a cage that the snakes couldn't escape from. But if you really don't think you can . . ."
He saw Jaina's face light at the challenge, but then her brandy-brown eyes narrowed shrewdly, and he knew that she had caught on. "That," she said, "is a dirty trick. You know I could-" She shook her head, sighed in mock exasperation, and seemed to resign herself to the inevitable. "Oh, all right! I'll build you a new cage for your crystal snakes-"
"Thanks," a grinning Jacen cut her off before she could change her mind.
"You're the best sister in the whole galaxy!"
Jaina huffed indelicately. "But don't bring this new snake back to your quarters until I have the cage ready."
"Okay," Jacen said, "I'll keep it