Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 13_ Trouble on Cloud City - Kevin J. Anderson [25]
Anja shivered. She couldn't believe how strongly she had reacted to her minor slip on the tree branch, how grateful she had been for her friends'
help. Jacen and Tenel Ka had saved her. Would Czethros ever have done something so noble for her?
"Get a grip," she scolded herself quietly as they entered a chilly, dazzling white polar environment chamber.
Jacen Solo was the son of her worst enemy. She could have taken the opportunity in the treetops to throw him off balance; the fall would have looked like an accident. After all, hadn't she come to Yavin 4 and now to Bespin to find a way to hurt Han Solo through his children?
Objectively speaking, what could have been more fortunate than if Jacen had fallen to injury or death?
But even as the thought entered her mind, Anja's stomach clenched.
How could she be so ungrateful-he had been there for her when she needed him. As she looked around at the bleak whiteness of the polar environment chamber, resentment welled up in her. Who had asked Jacen to be so nice to her? His selfless actions just muddled her thoughts and confused her plans.
I do want to hurt Han Solo, she insisted silently to herself It's the only way to make him Pay for my father's death. In frustration, she reached down, packed some snow together into a ball, and threw it directly at Jacen's chest. He laughed as it broke apart into thousands of fluffy white chunks. He retaliated immediately.
A fast and furious snowball fight ensued, and by the time she, Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowie stepped back into the central hub ten minutes later, Anja had pushed all thoughts of weakness from her mind.
"Dear me. What was that?" Em Teedee asked, bobbing along above Lowie's shoulder, a light dusting of snow melting on his silvery casing.
Lowie gave a questioning growl.
"Over there," Em Teedee said. "It scurried up the access corridor. "
")1/2at did?" Jacen said.
"Someone-or something," Em Teedee replied. "An Ugnaught, I believe.
He was carrying some sort of case with a handle on it. Come to think of it, I do believe that creature was lurking about earlier whilst we were building our fortress in the sand in the seashore environmenthe had the same odd patch of missing fur on his head."
Anja had an unsettled feeling in her stomach as Jacen trotted over to the corridor that the translating droid had indicated.
"I saw him," Jacen said. "He just disappeared through a trapdoor in the corridor. Let's find out what he's up to."
"What for?" Anja asked in alarm.
"Because he's acting suspicious," Jacen replied, as if the answer were obvious. "If Em Teedee is right about his patchy fur, he may be the same Ugnaught foreman who got fired a few days before Cojahn's death.
That's suspicious, isn't it? What would he be doing here? He shouldn't be at the construction site at all."
Anja's tension returned with full force, and she had a sudden overwhelming urge to go back to her quarters, where she could think, where she could be alone, where she had stored her spice.
"I don't find his lurking or his disappearance the least bit suspicious.
Maybe the guy just left some tools behind," she said. "He came, he got his tools, he left. I think you're all just a bit too desperate to find something to investigate."
Tenel Ka shook back her red-gold warrior braids and looked directly at Anja. "But I sensed something through the Force: danger."
"Me too," Jacen said.
Lowie rumbled his agreement.
"The sentiment appears to be unanimous, Mistress Anja," Em Teedee said.
"Well, you can count me out," Anja said. "I've had my share of bad experiences with Ugnaughts, and I don't really want to repeat them.
Besides,