• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Lowie 'woofed and tapped the control panel in front of him.

"Yep, I see it," Jaina said.

"What kind of structures?" Jacen asked.

"I'm afraid I can't say," Em Teedee replied.

"They are approximately three kilometers ahead of us. At least that's what the ship's sensors indicate."

"There," Jaina said as she slowed the Rock Dragon and dropped even lower.

The thick wall that surrounded the small city atop a high, strategic hill was broken in several places. Some of the buildings inside the enclosure seemed in good repair, but others were cracked and crumbling. A variety of furred and feathered creatures bounded, scurried, or swooped from building to building. Yellow, six-legged reptiles with curly tails clung to the sunny side of every wall or turret.

"No people," Tenel Ka observed.

"Somebody must live on this planet.

Maybe they just don't like this city for some reason," Jacen said.

"The others might still be inhabited, though." He wished they could stop to explore, so he could study the strange creatures he had just seen, but Jaina pulled the Rock Dragon up and had already begun looking for the next city.

They flew for hours across the surface of the planet, zigzagging back and forth to cover more ground. They came upon a score of other ghost cities, fortresses, and villages in varying states of disrepair.

None were inhabited, and none had been disturbed in centuries.

Civilization on Kuar had died out long ago, and it seemed that no new settlers had taken up residence here.

They found no dues to Bornan Thul's whereabouts, no evidence to show he or anyone else, had been here.

Jacen was beginning to get nervous. He could see Jaina biting her lower lip. "Where are people when you need them?" he heard her mutter.

"You, um... you don't suppose," Jacen began, "that some war or virus or something could have killed everybody on Kuar, do you?"

Jaina darted him a startled look, as if she had not thought of this.

"No," Tenel Ka said simply. "The Man-dalorians used the planet briefly after they conquered it. Then they abandoned this place."

"Rest assured, Master Jacen," Em Teedee chimed in, "all evidence indicates that the settlements we're seeing have been deserted for hundreds if not thousands--of years."

Jacen relaxed slightly. "Okay, there aren't any people. Then what exactly are we looking for, anyway?"

"No people, no beacons.... "Jaina mused. "Where would strangers plan to meet? A landmark maybe?" Jaina said.

"There is much surface area to cover," Tenel Ka pointed out.

"It would have to be an obvious meeting place, then," Jaina said.

"Something that's easy to find on a planet this size."

Lowie rumbled that the meeting place would need a good landing area nearby.

"Okay, that's what we're looking for, then."

Jaina nodded. "Trust me, I'll know it when I see it."

Jacen, Lowie, and Tenel Ka exchanged amused glances.

As it turned out, Jaina was right. Just before dawn she saw a broad-based mesa that rose a kilometer above the cracked and dusty plain. As they drew closer, it became clear that the plateau, which was close to three kilometers wide, was not really a mesa. The majority of the mountain's flat top had collapsed into a deep crater, surrounded by an artificially broad, level rim, forming a gigantic natural arena.

Houses and tunnels and walkways and stairs had long ago been built into the interior sides of the crater. From the floor of the crater rose the ruins of a vast array of tall, crumbling buildings. A network of rusty chains connected the tops of these structures, like the web design of some deranged insect. Jaina brought the Rock Dragon in for a smooth landing on the broad lip of the crater.

"Here we are," she said smugly. "Landmark.

Easy to spot. Excellent landing area.

This would be my guess." Lowie agreed enthusiastically.

"Our sensors indicate no signs of airborne contaminants that would endanger the lives of humans or Wookiees," Em Teedee assured them.

"The atmosphere is perfectly breathable."

"Everybody out, then," Jaina said.