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"Can't just wait around to be rescued," she said, keeping her voice low.

"Nobody knows we're on Ryloth. My parents can't send in troops to get us out of here." She heaved a noisy sigh. "That's what we get for not telling anyone where we're going."

Raynar's face was pale, and he looked sick with fear. "Well, Lusa knows.

She's our only hope." He swallowed hard. "But she promised not to tell anyone. It may be a long time before she changes her mind."

Jaina gave him a consoling pat on the arm.

"We're Jedi, Raynar. We've got the Force. Nothing is ever hopeless...."

Suspended above the grotto, dangling beside a sharp stalactite, Tenel Ka swung herself into position. She gripped the hard spongy fungus, swung herself like a pendulum, and smashed with her vibrating hammer at the end of each swing.

"I'd love to tell you a joke," Jacen said, swinging himself alongside her so that they stayed close together, "but nothing really seems funny to me at the moment."

They pummeled the same pinnacle of rock until the fungus-covered stalactite broke free and tumbled toward an empty crater in the floor.

The rock spike shattered into chunks of rich ore.

"Another one down," Jacen said. "More credits for the Diversity Alliance."

Tenel Ka fumed in silence. Then something caught her eye. With a gesture of her chin, she indicated the chocolate-furred Wooldee woman who had just appeared in an opening in the observation gallery.

Raaba stood tall and enigmatic and powerful.

She looked on with interest, turning her attention from one young Jedi Knight to another to another. She spoke with none of the guards, only watched.

Dangling in her harness, Tenel Ka glared in mute fury at this friend of Lowie's who had betrayed them. Then she angrily set back to work, her thoughts as sharp as steel, and as hard.

Finally Raaba turned and stalked away.

Although Tenel Ka hoped to develop a plan, at the moment she had to admit that she could see no way for them to escape.

THE SMALL GREEN jungle moon of Yavin 4 was a welcome sight in the Lighting Rod's front viewports. Though thoughts of the Jedi academy still intimidated him, Zekk found his spirits rising in anticipation of seeing his friends Jaina and Jacen Solo again.

He used the entry request code that Jaina had so thoughtfully provided when helping him overhaul the Lightning Rod on Mechis III; the New Republic guardian forces in orbit allowed him to pass. Nosing the Lightning Rod down into Yavin 4's atmosphere, he wondered if the twins would help persuade Raynar to go along on his search for Bornan Thul.

They might even volunteer to accompany him themselves. He hoped that at least Jaina would want to join him.

But as Zekk made his final approach to the Jedi academy's landing clearing in front of the Great Temple, now mostly restored, he felt a strange twinge through the Force. Not a tingle at the back of his neck, as he sometimes felt when danger was present. It was more like a premonition that the day would not turn out quite as Zekk hQped.

Trying to brush aside his sense ofunease, Zekk brought the Lightning Rod in for a skillful landing on the stubbly grass field. A part of him hoped that the orbiting security force had alerted Jaina of his arrival.

If so, Jaina might even now be hurrying down to the landing area to greet him.

To his disappointment, though, he saw not a single familiar face when he stepped out of his ship in the broad clearing. In fact, except for the pair of New Republic guards who patrolled the base of the stone pyramid, no one seemed to take any notice of Zekk's arrival.

Shrugging off his disappointment, Zekk started toward the ancient temple building to find his friends. At the young man's approach, the two New Republic guards--a human and a fish-headed Calamarianmconferred briefly.

One pointed behind Zekk at the Lightning Rod, while the other consulted a datapad in his hand.

Apparently satisfied, the two nodded. The Calamarian offered Zekk a courtesy salute with a broad, webbed hand before the guard's split up and resumed their patrols.

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