Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 05_ Darkest Knight - Kevin J. Anderson [19]
"Banthas were bred for desert travel," Jacen piped up, "but this guy seems to love it here."
Indeed, Jaina thought, the beast seemed fat and healthy, content to carry passengers from the residential districts to the main fabrication facility. They passed other Wookiees walking to work, eating up the distance with long-legged strides.
Beside her on the padded riding structure, Tenel Ka stared ahead, her expression unreadable but alert, ready for anything. Lowie and Sirra sat on the back cushions, chatting comfortably in the Wookiee language.
Jaina looked forward to her tour of the computer factory. She couldn't wait to see the engineering marvels and industrial facilities the Wookiees had installed on their wilderness world. Lowie probably would have been eager as well, if he hadn't been so concerned about his sister.
The bantha stopped and let them off at an outer checkpoint that gave access to the technical complex. Using handholds on the padded seats, the companions climbed down the hairy back of the bantha and jumped to the interlocked wooden deck. Since the bantha transportation systems were designed for use by tall Wookiees, the drop was a meter longer than Jaina expected. She wondered how the diminutive Sullustan driver ever managed to climb his way onto the beast's head.
Lowie paid the driver a few credit chips, and the bantha trudged back down the cleared arboreal highway toward the residential islands in search of new passengers.
Jaina looked at the multiplatformed industrial facility, seeing decks mounted in tiers on the uppermost branches. Lowie growled in excitement and pointed to a level platform high above and behind them. From this angle, Jaina couldn't see anything on its surface, but then a small craft rose with a grating roar of supercharged sublight engines.
"That's an old Y-wing," she said, recognizing the outdated designs of the craft. The Y-wing had a triangular cockpit flanked by two long engine pods that together gave the fighter its characteristic shape like the letter for which it had been named. This starfighter had been refurbished and upgraded, and its engines were loud and powerful. The crafts afterburners kicked in behind the engine pods, and the Y-wing streaked into the skies of Kashyyyk.
Another identical starfighter rose from the platform, hovered for a moment as the pilot adjusted the controls, then streaked off after its companion. A third and a fourth Y-wing also then sud soared away. "How many of them are there?" Jacen asked. Jaina watched in admiration.
'Probably an entire squadron," she suggested, denly remembered something she had heard. soare "The i strength it can get if we're going to fight the Second Imperium. We don't have time to build all new ships, so I think they're refur bishing the old ones tha balled since the fall of the Emperor."
"What do you mean, refurbishinle" Jacen asked. "Well, there's nothing actually wrong with the old Y-wings," Jaina said with a shrug.
?????? technology we can mod "They ernize the engines, i i lion, but with new i I multipliers. Since we're on Kashyyyk, I'll bet they're getting new navicomputers, guidance and tactical systems, and central processors installed."
Lowie and Sirra nodded their shaggy heads vigorously to show that Jaina was right. She looked into the sky and watched as, one after another, Ywings shot upward in a spectacular aerial display.
Sirra said something else, and Em Teedee translated. "Mistress Sirra suggests we remain here to watch, since the upgraded ships often test their new systems. She assures us it is quite a breathtaking sight."
Lowie bellowed in agreement. Jaina wanted nothing more than to witness the demonstration.
When twelve of the ships had been