• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"No outbursts, no noise," Hovrak warned. "You will come with us quietly."

From another tunnel a second group of soldiers emerged. With them stood Raaba, chocolate fur bristling, red headband cinched around her head, and armlets pushed high on her biceps.

Jacen looked desperately at the Wookiee woman. His eyes pleaded.

"Hey, Raaba, tell them who we are! We just wanted to talk to Lowie."

But the plea was wasted. Raaba glared at them.

In a smooth motion their captors swept them into a side catacomb, away from the computer center. Jaina drew a deep breath to shout for Lowie--but the Trandoshan clapped a rough rept'rlian hand across her mouth.

"Kill humans," he gargled, as if in anticipation.

The monsters hauled the young Jedi Knights off as prisoners. The guards remained wary, keeping their blasters pressed against their sides.

The companions could never coordinate their Jedi powers all at the same time to divert so many blaster bolts.

Jaina swallowed hard. They would fight to escape--but now was not the time...

Back in the computer center, Lowie sensed a great uneasiness in the Force. He looked up from a difficult problem at his terminal, glanced around the computer center, and then darted his gaze out through the transparisteel walls into the shadowy corridors beyond.

Although the interior light caused quite a glare, and he could make out only a few details, he thought he saw a flicker of shadows, a movement of bodies disappearing into a corridor... but he could not be sure.

Once again he felt the heavy loneliness he had almost forgotten during his deep concentration.

He loved working with computers, and this programming problem was a great challenge. He stared out the windows for a long moment, but nothing reappeared. Then with a low sigh he sat back down at the keyboard and returned to work.

It was probably just his imagination. Lowie missed his friends terribly, and he must have been seeing only what he wanted to see.

STRUGGLING IN HOVRAK'S grip, his wrists tied behind him, Jacen cast about in his mind for some way of using his Jedi abilities to free himself. The wolfman's claws dug through the sleeve of his fiightsuit piercing his skin and drawing a few sticky droplets of blood. Jacen barely felt the pain, though.

He looked over at his sister, then at Tenel Ka, to reassure himself that they were all right. The warrior girl showed no sign of agitation, but when her granite-gray eyes flicked toward him, he saw grave concern. He drew a deep breath and called on the Force for the calm courage he needed, to keep up a good face for her.

The Diversity Alliance attackers didn't deserve the satisfaction of seeing their fear.

The other young Jedi Knights remained silent as Hovrak and the guards marched them through an endless maze of corridors until they finally emerged into Nolaa Tarkona's throne room grotto.

The Twi'Lek woman sat st'dly in her stone chair on the dais, leaning forward. Her glittering pink eyes intent, she watched them with barely disguised loathing.

Jacen stared back at the scarred leader of the Diversity Alliance. Her skin was pale and cadaverous, and the masculine uniform and padded body armor Nolaa wore beneath her flowing black robe hid any feminine curves she might possess. Even so, she radiated power as she watched the young human captives.

"Ah, a gift for me," Nolaa Tarkona said. "Or perhaps a snack for Hovrak."

Hovrak's hot breath blew down Jacen's neck.

"We're not a gift for anyone," Jaina snapped.

"Or a snack."

Nolaa's tattooed head-tail twitched. She displayed a set of perfectly pointed teeth. "You are trespassers--intruders, spies. Worst of all, you are human." She spat the word and scowled with distaste. "Humans have always tried to destroy what alien species have built. This is my private sanctuary, a place of freedom for all species. Still you have crept in and contaminated this place with your presence. You were caught near the computer center, no doubt attempting sabotage."

"No way!" Jacen said. "We only wanted