Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 07_ Shards of Alderaan - Kevin J. Anderson [19]
And not back to Coruscant either. That place held too many bad memories for him, too much past.
He wanted to go where he could forget his last few years and start anew..
. a place he could still think of as home: the planet Ennth. That was where he had come from, where he had spent the first eight years of his life, where his parents had died in the recurring disaster that struck that world every eight years.
Zekk had been born on Ennth. Less than a year later, he and his parents had moved to one of the crowded and dirty refugee stations in orbit near Ennth, as his people waited for the planetary convulsions to subside so that the colonists could return and rebuild their ruined cities on the scorched ground. Zekk had been only a child when the new settlements-ambitious structures and waterways-were erected from prefabricated modules.
The fresh ash that had rained down from erupting volcanoes made Ennt]Ys agricultural lands fertile. Civilization on the planet had blossomed frantically during those quiet years, like a desperate flower in the desert after a rain, pouring its energy into a brief flash of life before time and the environment ultimately claimed it.
Zekk had been nine when the year of disasters returned. A bright and promising child, he had been evacuated and sent again to the crowded refugee stations, where he was expected to endure a miserable existence for many months... until the cycle of reconstruction and growth could begin all over That time, though, his parents had stayed on the surface too long, retnevmg their last meaningless possessions, trying to salvage everything they had planted, as well as their furniture and mementos. A groundquake had struck unexpectedly. The seismic shock, larger than all previous ones, had its epicenter @lyon New Hopetown, the village Zekk had helped build, the place a small boy had called home.
Fissures opened up. Lava spewed forth....
And no one had survived.
Orphaned at only nine, his home destroyed, young Zekk had been smart enough to realize that he did not want to stay without guardians on a world that proved so resistant to human settlement.
Acting brashly, Zekk had stowed away on one of the supply ships, not knowing where he was headed or where his luck would take him.
Luck. He'd always had a knack for finding things, choosing the right path. It had seemed a coincidence back then, but Brakiss had taught Zekk that he had an aptitude for using the Force. It had helped Zekk escape from Ennth.
From that point on, he had hopped from one ship to another, scrounging a life for himself He had finally hooked up with old Peckhum, who treated him with kindness and caring, giving him a chance.
Now it was time to go home.
He scoured the Lightning Rod's navicomputer records, projecting holographic paths from the generator Jaina had newly repaired, as he searched for the proper coordinates. Ennth, by no means a popular world, was located on no major trade routes.
Luckily, Peckhum had several obscure navigational files-mcluchng records of the previous evacuation. Zekk was surprised to see that the old man had been to Ennth during the initial supply runs, helping,to take people off the planet. Peckhum had never told Zekk.... Maybe his old friend felt somewhat responsible for not staying to do more for the colonists.
Zekk punched in the coordinates, anxious to see how much the anguished world had changed since he had left it. Eight years had passed.
The Lightning Rod shot into hyperspace.
When the planet appeared in front of him, long-forgotten memories flashed through Zekk's mind. He sat in the pilot's chair, powering up the comm system as the Lightning Rod settled into normal space again and approached Ennth.
The large moon had a pocked and cratered appearance, as if it held many mouths full of fangs waiting to devour human settlements on the primary world. The moon's path was highly