Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 02_ Shadow Academy - Kevin J. Anderson [12]
Jacen placed his ear against the thick door and listened, but he could hear only the muffled noises of battle. Lowie, his ginger-colored fur standing on end with battle-readiness, kneaded his big knuckles. Jaina looked around the room for anything to help them fight.
Jacen yelled to the droids, "Hey, is there an armory in here? Do you have any weapons?"
The droids interrupted their packing and swiv-eled smooth copper heads toward him, optical sensors glowing. "Please do not disturb us, sir,"
they said, then resumed their tasks. "We have essential work to do."
Outside the door, the sound of gunfire suddenly increased. Jaina pulled Jacen back from the door as she heard Lando shout. The door vibrated with the impact of energy bolts, then everything went quiet. Jaina waited, backing away and looking into her twin brothers brandy-brown eyes. They both swallowed. Lowbacca let out a thin sound like a whimper. The multiarmed droids continued working, undisturbed.
A shower of sparks ran around part of the door as heavy-duty lasers cut into it, slicing away a section.
"D'you suppose you could invent some sort of weapon for us in the next few seconds?" Jacen said.
Jaina racked her brain for inspiration, but her inventiveness failed her.
The door split open, melted and smoking. The security breach set off yet another alarm, but the sounds were pitiful and superfluous in the already-overwhelming noise of the battle for GemDiver Station.
Stormtroopers muscled their way in.
The two packing droids trundled indignantly toward the Stormtroopers.
"Intruder alert," one of the droids said. "Warning. No unauthorized entry is permitted. You must return to-"
In response, the Stormtroopers fired with all their weapons, blasting both copper droids into shards of smoking components that clattered and sparked on the floor.
Jaina saw Lando sprawled unconscious on the floor outside the door, his green cape pooled around him, his right arm extended forward, still grasping the blaster pistol.
The towering dark woman strode in, her violet eyes flashing at the three companions. The stormtroopers leveled blaster pistols at Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca.
"Wait!" Jaina said. "What do you want?"
"Do not let them manipulate your minds," the dark woman shouted to the Stormtroopers. "Stun them!"
Before Jaina could say anything else, bright blue arcs shot toward her and the others, and they were overcome by a wave of unconsciousness.
Jaina fell into blackness.
5
On Yavin 4 Tenel Ka paced the ramparts of the Great Temple that housed Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy. As befitted a warrior of Dathomir, she wore scaled armor that shone as if it had just been polished... which it had. Her red-gold hair was caught up in a multitude of ceremonial braids, each decorated with feathers or beads. Her cool gray eyes scanned the leaden skies for any sign of the ship that would bring the dreaded ambassador from her grandmother.
Wind whipped the ornamented braids about her face, and Tenel Ka pushed them away in annoyance. The humid air felt oppressive, charged with menace. Yavin's dry season had ended.
She sensed an uncomfortable tingling in the depths of her mind that told her something was about to happen, as if lightning were about to strike.
She sighed. Her grandmothers messengers and diplomats could be as lethal as lightning....
They were not above killing an enemy, or even a friend, to ensure that the successor to the throne of Hapes was the one they most desired to have in power. It was rumored that her grandmother's assassins had murdered Tenel Ka's own uncle, brother to her father, Prince Isolder.
She started in surprise as a raindrop, warm as blood, landed with a splat on her bare arm. Although the air was not cold, she shivered.
Her feelings toward her grandmother were complex: she both admired and despised the older woman. Tenel Ka preferred to dress in the lizardskin armor of the warrior women of Dathomir,