The Lost Ones

19

Young Anakin Solo stood next to the comm unit in the living area of his family’s quarters, exhausted from his long and fruitless search, and worried about his brother Jacen. Staring at the darkened screen, he willed a message to come in from Jacen, but he knew that none would come—he could feel it.

He and Threepio had returned to their quarters an hour earlier after covering their assigned search locations, but they had heard no word from Jacen. And Anakin knew he couldn’t delay any longer.

He turned and walked over to the wall, where the golden protocol droid sat enjoying the refreshment of a brief shutdown cycle. Ice-blue eyes looked into the droid’s yellow optical sensors. Anakin gave the droid a tap. “Wake up, Threepio. We’ve waited long enough. Time to get help.”

The optical sensors winked to life, and See-Threepio gave a start of surprise. “Dear me, I couldn’t possibly have overslept, could I? I thought we agreed to rest two more cycles before going out to search again. And you have a lesson plan to—”

“I can sense that something is wrong,” Anakin interrupted. “Jacen and Tenel Ka haven’t come back.”

“Well, if you ask me—”

“I didn’t,” Anakin cut in. “Try to signal them again with your mobile comlink connection.”

“I’m sure they’re quite all right, but I’ll try.” Threepio tilted his head sideways and stared off into space for a few seconds.

“Any response?” Anakin asked.

“No, Master Anakin,” Threepio replied with greater concern in his voice. “None at all.”

Just then Leia Organa Solo entered the room, smiling brightly at Anakin—then frowning. “Anakin, what’s wrong?”

Anakin considered how much to tell his mother—after all, they had asked for her help earlier, but she had not believed Zekk’s disappearance was anything serious. Now, though, maybe Leia would change her mind when she learned that Jacen and Tenel Ka had vanished as well. The young boy spilled the story rapidly, with Threepio adding sound effects and embellishing with unnecessary comments.

“Jacen would have answered our call if he could,” Anakin said.

“Most certainly,” See-Threepio added with enthusiasm. “Master Jacen may be somewhat disorganized, but he is always conscientious.”

Her alarm growing visibly, Leia said, “He would answer—unless he’s in trouble.” She reached some sort of decision and snapped into action, demonstrating one of the qualities that made her a good Chief of State. “We’ve got to go find them. Tenel Ka wouldn’t let Jacen do anything dangerous. But she probably doesn’t think anything is dangerous.”

Leia ran to a wall panel. “I’ll summon a group of guards to go with us. Threepio, can you trace the location of Jacen’s comlink?”

“Well, it’s certainly not as precise a tracking system as I’d like, but I suppose that by sending a continuous signal and monitoring the feedback from the mobile comlink I could probably—”

“So how close can you get us?” Leia interrupted impatiently.

“I should be able to pinpoint the signal to within a radius of ten meters.”

“Close enough,” Leia said.

Anakin gave a sigh of relief. “Let’s just hope both Jacen and Tenel Ka are still somewhere near the comlink.”

“We’ll worry about that when we get there,” Leia said, grabbing a medkit and dashing toward the door. Guards rushed into position, still not clear on what the emergency was. “Let’s go, Anakin. You’re part of this rescue, too. Which way, Threepio?” Leia called.

The protocol droid followed as fast as his mechanical legs could move. “To your left, Mistress Leia. We’ll need to find a turbolift and take it down forty-two levels.”

Anakin tried to picture in his head where they were going, but with little success. “Maybe you’d better lead, Threepio.”

Leia, the guards, and Anakin followed See-Threepio as he picked his way across another rickety walkway between two gigantic buildings. The protocol droid seemed to be enjoying his new importance immensely.

The buildings stretched out of sight above and below them. Once, at a spot where the side rail was missing, Anakin lost his footing and nearly fell off the bridge, but Leia instinctively grabbed him. She looked at her son with shock, then hugged him quickly. “Be careful,” she urged. “We’ve all got to be careful.”

Anakin shuddered. This area had not looked so dangerous on the map. As they homed in on the comlink signal, working through abandoned levels and empty, ominous halls, he noticed a design that appeared with increasing frequency on the grimy walls: an equilateral triangle surrounding a cross.

“I wonder what that symbol means,” he said, pointing.

“I am fluent in over six million forms of communication,” Threepio said. “Unfortunately, that design is not in any of my databanks. I’m afraid I cannot offer any enlightenment, Master Anakin.”

Leia looked at the guards. “Do any of you recognize the symbol?”

One of them cleared his throat. “I believe it’s a gang marking, Madam President. Several … unpleasant groups make a habit of living down in the untended lower levels of the city. They are very difficult to catch.”

“I heard Zekk talking with Jacen and Jaina about a gang called the Lost Ones,” Anakin supplied. “I think the gang wanted Zekk to become a member.”

Leia’s mouth formed a grim line, and she nodded, filing away the information for future reference. Right now, she just wanted to find Jacen and Tenel Ka.

See-Threepio paused to study his readings. “Oh, curse my inadequate sensors—I’m certain my counterpart Artoo-Detoo could have been much more accurate—but I believe that we are now within two hundred meters of their location.”

As the group walked deeper into the dilapidated level, the hall became darker and darker. The guards held their weapons ready, glancing at each other uneasily. Leia held her chin up and bravely pushed ahead with greater speed. Threepio increased the brightness of his optical sensors, shedding a soft yellow light directly ahead of them. Anakin kept his glowrod out and ready; it made him feel safer somehow, as if it were an imitation lightsaber.

Threepio made a sharp right turn into a low, narrow passageway, ducking under a half-fallen girder. Even Anakin had to stoop to get under it. “Are you sure this is the right direction, Threepio?”

“Oh yes, absolutely certain,” Threepio replied. “Remember, we are following a direct path, homing in on the signal. Young Master Jacen may have taken a more roundabout way. We are within thirty meters now.”

They finally emerged into a large, eerily lit room with flickering glowpanels mounted haphazardly on the walls. Anakin looked around at the set of rickety stairs leading nowhere, the food wrappers, cushions, and broken-down furniture, and the odd assortment of sealed doors on the other side of the room. “This must be the meeting place of the Lost Ones.”

“Oh dear,” Threepio said. “Didn’t Master Zekk say those gang members were rather unpleasant sorts?”

The room was deathly silent, and the flickering lights made Anakin uneasy. The guards hesitated at the low doorway, pushing their weapon barrels inside. Even though the room was empty, Anakin sensed a lingering feeling of darkness as he entered and began to look around. He nearly jumped out of his skin when See-Threepio cried out, looking down at the floor in horror.

“It’s all my fault!” Threepio wailed again. “Oh, curse the slowness of my processor. We should have come looking for them much sooner.”

In a heartbeat Anakin had scrambled over the makeshift furnishings to where Threepio stood berating himself. Leia and the guards rushed over to join him.

Jacen and Tenel Ka lay crumpled on the floor, side by side, unconscious … or perhaps dead.

Quickly unstrapping the medkit, Leia pulled out a mini-diagnosticator and examined the two young Jedi Knights. “It’s all right,” she said. “They’re alive—just knocked out.” She ran her cool palm over Jacen’s forehead, brushing aside his tousled hair.

Anakin and Leia slowly nursed the two back to consciousness. Jacen came around first, and Anakin could tell from the look in his brother’s eyes that the news was grim.

“Are you all right?” Anakin asked. He shifted gears as he began to put the pieces of a puzzle together in his mind.

Jacen swallowed hard. “Tenel Ka? …” he asked, his voice shaky.

“… is just fine,” Leia said reassuringly. “Looks like you two got stunned. What happened?”

Jacen shivered, as though the room had suddenly become colder. “Tamith Kai was here—the Nightsister from the Shadow Academy—along with two of her friends.” His brandy-brown eyes squeezed shut, as if he had just remembered something too painful to bear. He groaned. “And they’ve got Zekk! I think … I think he’s gone over to the dark side.”

Anakin’s breath could not have come out in a greater rush if a bantha had just kicked him in the stomach.

“They’re going to train him to be a Jedi,” Jacen continued. “A Dark Jedi.”

Tenel Ka grunted and sat up. “This is a fact.”

“There were other kids here, too,” Jacen said. “The Lost Ones. I think the Nightsisters took them all—to the Shadow Academy.”

Leia shook her head, her dark eyes flashing. “I think it’s about time we did something decisive about that Second Imperium,” she said. “That’s twice now they’ve hurt my children.”

“Yes, indeed, Mistress Leia! That’s all well and good, but we simply must get back home where it’s safe,” Threepio said in alarm. “Mistress Tenel Ka, are you capable of walking?”

Her granite-gray eyes narrowed, as if she suspected a veiled insult. “I could carry you, if I had to.”

Jacen chuckled, then groaned as he held his aching head. “Yeah, I think she’s just fine.”