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Young Jedi Knights

Book 14

Under a Black Sun

Crisis at Crystal Reef

by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

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This one is for Catherine Ulatowski-Sidor for helping us look organized even when we're not, for being there to catch any balls we drop, for being a careful and enthusiastic reader, and for being a friend ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Matt Bialer and Josh Holbreich of the William Morris Agency for their encouragement on this project; Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and Lucy Autrey Wilson at Lucas Licensing for their valuable input-, Ginjer Buchanan and Jessica Faust at Boulevard Books for their unflagging support throughout these fourteen books; Dave Dorman for his fabulous cover art on each and every book; Debra Ray at AnderZone for cheering us on; Sarah Jones at WordFire, Inc for keeping things running smoothly; and, as always, Jonathan Cowan for being our first test-reader.

A special thanks to the many, many fans who wrote or visited us at book signings to tell us how much the Young Jedi Knights have meant to them.

We couldn't have kept going without you.

On the grassy landing field in front of the Jedi academy's Great Temple, an old-model cargo ship gleamed in the morning sun. Though some might have considered the Lightning Rod little more than a junk hauler well past its prime-perhaps better suited to be hauled away as junk-it was Zekk's pride and joy. The young, dark-haired Jedi walked in a slow circle around his ship, appraising the recent repairs with his sharp emerald gaze.

"You're awfully attached to this scrap heap, aren't you?" Jaina observed with good humor.

Zekk looked into her brandy-brown eyes, raised an eyebrow, and grinned.

"Jealous?"

"Maybe just a little." Jaina took a sudden interest in a minute scratch on the hull plating. "Kinda silly, I know. But sometimes I wonder if you don't care about your ship more than, urn... more than most people do,"

she finished lamely.

Zekk shrugged. "Why not? Old Peckhum gave me the Lightning Rod, and he's the closest thing I've got to a family. This old ship was a special place for us. I practically grew up with her, kind of like you and Jacen did with the Millennium Falcon."

Jaina nodded and bit her lower lip. "Sure. I can understand that."

"But there are other reasons that I care more than most people would about this ship," Zekk went on. "Fixing up the Lightning Rod was part of my healing process after I left the Shadow Academy."

Zekk's face grew serious as he spoke. "And the Lightning Rod was with me all through my days as a bounty hunter while we were fighting the Diversity Alliance, while I was learning to trust the Force again."

He gave her a playful look. "Not only that, but it seems like every time I need to fix up my ship, there you are helping me." He paused, as if searching for words. "So in a way, you-and Jacen and Lowie and Tenel Ka-are all a part of how I feel about the Lightning Rod."

Zekk reached out to push a strand of straight brown hair back from Jaina's face.

Her cheeks turned a delicate pink. She opened her mouth as if to answer him.

"Hey, did somebody call us?" Jacen's face appeared over the top of the old light freighter. He waggled his eyebrows comically as Lowie's and Tenel Ka's faces joined his, looking down at Zekk and Jaina.

Tenel Ka's red-gold hair, part of it flowing free and part fixed in its traditional warrior braids, hung around her face and draped along the Lightning Rod's hull. "We have completed the external hull patch as you requested, Zekk," she announced.

Lowbacca, the lanky young Wookiee, scratched at the dark streak that ran up through his fur above one eye. He rumbled a comment as well.

The miniaturized translating droid Em Teedee hovered beside the ginger-furred Wookiee's head. "Oh, indeed, yes! The workmanship is so fine that I daresay it is virtually undetectable-except perhaps by a droid."

Zekk smiled. "Well, thanks everyone, that's great. But I still don't understand why all of you decided the Lightning