Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 14_ Crisis at Crystal Reef - Kevin J. Anderson [36]
Zekk grunted in acknowledgment. He hadn't wanted to be right about the damage to the sub.
"At least we got away from that monster," Jacen said, always the optimist.
"Great," Ania answered in a shaky voice. She looked very much on edge, very distressed. "But have you noticed that we're stranded beneath the polar ice cap?"
]Huddled in the wall channel of a dormant atmosphere factory, Jaina and Lowie set about determining the best way to fight Black Sun's invasion force.
The rock walls all around them were cold, and the air was thinbut the environment would be far worse if they traveled up the longrusted stairs to reach the open surface.
No matter how harsh the conditions they faced, though, Jaina knew they had to do something, anything to prevent Czethros from enacting his terrible schemes. The New Republic depended on them.
Lowie looked out of the tunnel entrance into the shadows of the broad pit that rose vertically toward the surface. In the past, the miners on Kessel had constructed gigantic factories to chemically release gases frozen in the rocks and spew them upward to thicken the atmosphere.
But such extravagant efforts had been only a temporary solution, and in recent years the small planet had rapidly reverted to its natural state of frigid cold with a rarefied atmosphere.
Next to the rock wall, the Wookiee took a deep breath. Fine threads of frost laced his ginger fur, and the lanky young Jedi looked miserable-but a fire of determination burned in his golden eyes. He growled.
Jania understood much of the Wookiee language, but Em Teedee translated anyway. "Master Lowbacca suggests that our primary mission should be to cause a serious malfunction to the sophisticated transmitter Czethros intends to use."
"Agreed," Jaina said, looking at Lowie. "If we get rid of that transmitter, Czethros can't send his signal. His coordinated plan fails."
"Yes, but Mistress Jaina," Em Teedee chimed in, "however are we to disable such a large piece of equipment?"
Jaina shrugged and then smiled at the shiny little translating droid.
"First thing is to find some sort of explosives.... Then we may just need you to sneak in there, Em Teedee."
The floating little droid's electronic squawk reverberated through the tunnels.
Each of the control rooms in the spice mine catacombs was sealed with a heavy door, code-locked and computer-controlled. Lowie used his programming expertise, with an occasional assist from the little droid, to crack the codes and force their way into one of the equipment lockers.
It wasn't difficult to find a supply of shaped explosives of the sort used for blasting mine tunnels. Kessel was, after all, an industrial excavation area. Lowie found small packaged cylinders marked with red HAzARD labels. He hefted them in his hands and looked over at Em Teedee's microrepulsorjets. He gave a growl of satisfaction.
"You can handle these, Em Teedee," Jaina said. "They don't weigh much."
"Oh, my!" the little droid replied. "But I've never carried explosives before."
"Not much different from a rock," Jaina said encouragingly, "except that these'll explode if you bump against anything."
"I appreciate your support, Mistress Jaina, but I find your optimism...
unsettling." She patted the floating silvery ovoid as it hovered in the air.
The tunnels were empty. The spice mine loading docks were shut down, denying access to any cargo ships, since Black Sun had taken over.
Czethros could not keep up this charade for long, but security threats against Kessel oftentimes required such random crackdowns, and the merchants waiting in orbit would just have to wait longer. No complaints or unusual-occurrence reports would be filed for at least another standard day.
Czethros would no doubt launch his widespread takeover before then.
Therefore, Jaina and her friends needed to complete their sabotage before that could happen.
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