Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 04_ Lightsabers - Kevin J. Anderson [6]
Finally, by morning, her eyes bloodshot and gritty from lack of sleep, Jaina shut down the system. She let the furnace cool until she could reach in and take out her beautiful, sparkling crystals.
They were a rich purplish blue, shimmering with inner energy. They had formed perfectly, as she had expected, guided by her own mental skills. She held them in her palm and smiled. Now for the next step.
The tip of Jacen's tongue stuck out between his lips as he focused with unaccustomed concentration on the mechanical task at hand. It had already taken him a week to get this far.
He wanted to rush through the project, jam the components into place, connect the power, and turn on his lightsaber-his own lightsaber-but he took Uncle Luke's words seriously. This was a weapon he would use for the rest of his life, the weapon of a Jedi. A few weeks didn't seem so long to invest in creating it.
Much as it went against his nature to do so, Jacen forced himself to be meticulous and patient, knowing that he had to make sure everything fit together just so in the precise configuration required.
He had the power source Jaina had given him, and it was easy to find pieces of metal in the right shape and size to form the casing. He used Jaina's tools to cut the pieces into interlocking configura22 Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights tions and file down the rough edges. After a few days of doing that, he installed the power source, connecting all the leads. Then he added the control buttons.
Jaina could have whipped the casing together in just a few minutes, but it took him days to gather all the parts. Now, even though his scavenger hunt was over, it still seemed to take forever to assemble the thing.
Jacen would rather have been outside hunting for more specimens to add to his menagerie-or better yet, playing with the ones that cheerfully bounced about in their cages, often housed mere centimeters from other creatures that would gladly have had them for breakfast.
He heard the crystal snake rustling in its repaired cage, and then one of the reptile birds began to chirrup-but Jacen steeled himself, focusing on the project at hand. The lightsaber was almost finished, almost finished! He would be the first to complete his, and Master Luke would be very proud.
With the handle mostly assembled, he wrapped special grip-textured bindings around it so that he could hold and wield the blade with the gentle ease of a Jedi swordsman. Now Jacen was ready to install the powerful crystal.
He went to the personal locker box where he kept his valuable possessions and withdrew a small, glittering object-a Corusca gem. He had snared the gem during a mining demonstration at Lando Calrissian's GemDiver Station, and had later used it to cut himself free from his locked quarters in the Shadow Academy. He had offered the jewel to his mother as a special gift-but she had persuaded Jacen to keep the gem, to find a special use for it.
And what could be more special than using it in his own lightsaber?
Lowbacca prowled through the clutter in the former Rebel control room, left over from when the Great Temple had been used as a base in the struggle against the Empire. The soldiers had left most of their old equipment here when they fled the small jungle moon. In the years since, most of the machinery and computers had been gutted for of er purposes, since Luke Skywalker's Jedi academv did not rely heavily on gadgets and technology. Although Jaina had already scavenged these rooms, Lowie knew that a great deal of equipment still remained to be picked through.
Poking his snout into shadowy corners, the Wookiee snuffled and rumbled thoughtfully to himself. He lifted metal coverings to look around, rummaging through wires and circuit boards, taking apart flatscreen displays.
"Master Lowbacca, I simply cannot imagine what you think you're accomplishing," Em Teedee said from the clip at his