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As they picked up speed, the young Jedi Knights dispensed with caution, running as hard as they could. Tunnels branched one direction, then another.

Confusing as the choices were, they kept running uphill.

As they plunged across a corridor intersection, they startled a group of five guards--a pair of one-eyed Abyssin, a Duros, and two furry white Talz. All of the aliens bellowed, drew their weapons, and fired."

Blaster bolts ricocheted from the curving tunnel walls, spurting rock dust and smoke.

Instinctively, Jaina ducked to one side. Jacen threw himself in the opposite direction as a blast struck the hard ceiling and arrowed back down through the spot where he had stood only a moment before.

"Run!" Tenel Ka said. "Faster!"

They raced along the tunnels, climbing toward the surface as the guards launched after them, still firing... still missing. Anew alarm sounded; one of the guards must have reported his coordinates and called for reinforcements.

"Do not stop yet," Tenel Ka advised.

"Save the lightsabers for close-in, hand-to-hand fighting," Jaina said.

"I vote we put that off as long as possible," Jacen added.

"I agree," Raynar said, puffing.

More guards joined the chase, converging from different directions.

Turning a corner, Tenel Ka spotted a tarpaulin-covered alcove marked with a glowing blue triangle. She recognized the armory symbol immediately.

"Aha," she said.

"Here." She grabbed the tarpaulin and tore it aside to reveal the smallweapons storage area.

"Are we supposed to just grab some weapons and shoot?" Raynar asked.

"I've never fired a blaster before."

The sound of footsteps echoed from several corridors at once. The angry guards bellowed.

"I've got a better idea," Jaina said. She dashed into the alcove and emerged with a thermal detonator in her hand. "We don't have much time,"

she said. "But I have a feeling this is going to cause a lot of damage.

Everybody split up."

She gestured in different directions. "Raynat, go that way. Jacen and Tenel Ka, you head down that corridor."

With the time-lock fuse set on the thermal detonator, she tossed it into the weapons storage area, then raced after Raynar. A contingent of guards burst into the intersection and howled as they saw their prey disappearing in two different directions.

But before they could follow, Jaina yelled, "Time!" She pulled Raynar with her into the shelter of a shallow niche in the rock wall. In the opposite tunnel, Jacen and Tenel Ka dove together to the floor.

The thermal detonator went off like a planet exploding.

The weapons storage alcove blasted out with the force of a turbolaser battery. The remaining thermal detonators exploded in a sympathetic eruption.

Power packs from the stored blasters added fuel. Rock walls crumbled.

Aftershocks trembled through the corridors.

The low ceiling collapsed, and stunned guards tried in vain to cover their heads. Curving walls sloughed into rubble. Smoke and fire gushed in all directions, invading every open pathway.

Feeling the heat singe his jumpsuit, Jacen rolled and tried to cover Tenel Ka's unprotected skin. His ears popped from the overpressure wave.

Within moments the shock front raced past the place where they'd taken shelter. Jacen stood up and brushed himself off. Tenel Ka touched his arm. "Thank you, Jacen," she said. "That was very brave."

"Just my protective instinct," he said with a lopsided grin. He turned to look back up the corridor and discovered that the walls had collapsed, cutting them off entirely from his sister and Raynar.

"Looks like we're on our own," he said.

"We will manage," Tenel Ka answered. We must get outside, where Lowbacca can find us."

Hearing distant shouts of alarm approaching from an open passage, they limped wearily off down the tunnel before they could be captured again.

Raynat and Jaina plodded ahead. They had not been harmed by the avalanche or the explosion, but they stumbled from exhaustion.

"I hope Jacen's all right. And Tenel Ka," Ray nar said.

Jaina could sense that her twin brother and her friend