Diversity Alliance

10

“Ah. Kuar, fifth planet orbiting a single sun in a star system of the same name,” Tenel Ka said, reading from her datapad while sitting in one of the crew seats of the Hapan passenger cruiser. “Still capable of sustaining human life, but apparently abandoned for some time…”

“Does it say anything about particular cities or structures?” Jaina asked, craning her neck to look out the Rock Dragon’s cockpit windowport, peering down toward the unwelcoming landscape below.

“Unfortunately, no,” Tenel Ka said, consulting the datapad again.

Lowbacca rumbled a question about the level of technology that might remain on the planet.

“No data on the technology of Kuar’s inhabitants either. In fact,” Tenel Ka said, holding up a finger to forestall the question Jacen was about to ask, “other than the legends of the Mandalorian warriors, I have found nothing about the former inhabitants.”

Jacen’s face fell, then he brightened again. “What about wildlife? Interesting animal species or plants?”

Tenel Ka shook her head grimly. “These files contain minimal data. Little that is of any use to us—only the ramblings of historical scholars speculating about the original inhabitants, before the Mandalorians swept through. None of the data is current. Even planetary archaeologists do not place this site on their priority research lists.”

“Hey, Em Teedee, do you have any other information about Kuar?” Jacen asked.

“Dear me, I’m afraid to say there’s not much, really, aside from what Mistress Tenel Ka has already told you. And I have the coordinates, of course.” The little droid made a sound like an aggrieved sigh. “I imagine that’s not very useful at this point, is it? We’re already here.”

“We’ll be able to speculate all we want about Kuar in a couple of minutes,” Jaina said. “We’re almost to the atmosphere. Okay, hit it, Lowie.”

The young Wookiee flicked a few switches, and the ship nosed down toward the vast sky that spread its thin blanket over the curved surface of Kuar.

Jaina flashed a conspiratorial grin at her brother and Tenel Ka. “As I always say, show me—don’t tell me.”

Tenel Ka raised an eyebrow and turned to Jacen. “Does she always say that? I have not heard her say it before.”

Jacen merely shrugged. The Rock Dragon dove into the atmosphere.

The magnified views of the distant landscape below alternated between occasional rock formations and various colors of dust or sand. It seemed as if the dusts of time had sifted over the entire world. But excitement had overtaken Jacen, and he was impatient to know more about the mysterious place beneath them. “Hey, what do the readings say?” he asked.

“Life-forms,” Jaina answered succinctly. “Quite a few, in fact. Definitely nonhuman—at least the life-forms we’re picking up right now.”

Lowie gave a thoughtful purr. “Quite right, Master Lowbacca,” Em Teedee said. “There’s no telling yet whether the life-forms are sentient or not.”

A few thin clouds drifted high in the atmosphere like worn and tattered lace, but they did little to obstruct Jacen’s view through the windowport. From this height, the surface seemed relatively flat and featureless.

“What about buildings?” he asked.

Lowie studied the readouts again and woofed a few times. “Most assuredly, Master Lowbacca. Those are definitely not natural formations,” Em Teedee said. “I’d hardly call them buildings, however. The structures are certainly old, but there’s something odd about them—irregular, as if they’re only half there.”

“Ruins, perhaps?” Tenel Ka suggested.

“Quite probably,” Em Teedee agreed.

“Why don’t we just get closer and see?” Jacen asked impatiently. “That’s the best way to find out.”

Jaina sighed. “I purposely stayed high, in hopes that we’d spot a city or smugglers encampment, or pick up a beacon of some sort to show us where any inhabited areas might be. I thought it would be the easiest way to figure out where Bornan Thul might have gone. You’re right, though—we’ll have to go down closer.”

Jacen grinned at her, raising his eyebrows. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

She took the Rock Dragon lower until they were skimming just two hundred meters above the surface. In most areas, the vegetation was fairly sparse. Rocky spikes and pillars and mesas jutted up from the landscape.

Occasionally, Jacen saw what looked like a nest of Some sort on one of the outcroppings. The color of the dirt, sand, and rock varied from cream, to saffron, to gray, to pale blue with purplish striations, to bright ochre, to stark obsidian.

Lowie woofed and tapped the control panel in front of him.

“Yep, I see it,” Jaina said.

“What kind of structures?” Jacen asked.

“I’m afraid I can’t say,” Em Teedee replied. “They are approximately three kilometers ahead of us. At least that’s what the ship’s sensors indicate.”

“There,” Jaina said as she slowed the Rock Dragon and dropped even lower. The thick wall that surrounded the small city atop a high, strategic hill was broken in several places. Some of the buildings inside the enclosure seemed in good repair, but others were cracked and crumbling. A variety of furred and feathered creatures bounded, scurried, or swooped from building to building. Yellow, six-legged reptiles with curly tails clung to the sunny side of every wall or turret.

“No people,” Tenel Ka observed.

“Somebody must live on this planet. Maybe they just don’t like this city for some reason,” Jacen said.

“The others might still be inhabited, though.” He wished they could stop to explore, so he could study the strange creatures he had just seen, but Jaina pulled the Rock Dragon up and had already begun looking for the next city.

They flew for hours across the surface of the planet, zigzagging back and forth to cover more ground. They came upon a score of other ghost cities, fortresses, and villages in varying states of disrepair.

None were inhabited, and none had been disturbed in centuries.

Civilization on Kuar had died out long ago, and it seemed that no new settlers had taken up residence here.

They found no dues to Bornan Thul’s whereabouts, no evidence to show he or anyone else, had been here.

Jacen was beginning to get nervous. He could see Jaina biting her lower lip. “Where are people when you need them?” he heard her mutter.

“You, um … you don’t suppose,” Jacen began, “that some war or virus or something could have killed everybody on Kuar, do you?”

Jaina darted him a startled look, as if she had not thought of this.

“No,” Tenel Ka said simply. “The Mandalorians used the planet briefly after they conquered it. Then they abandoned this place.”

“Rest assured, Master Jacen,” Em Teedee chimed in, “all evidence indicates that the settlements we’re seeing have been deserted for hundreds if not thousands—of years.”

Jacen relaxed slightly. “Okay, there aren’t any people. Then what exactly are we looking for, anyway?”

“No people, no beacons…. “Jaina mused. “Where would strangers plan to meet? A landmark maybe?” Jaina said.

“There is much surface area to cover,” Tenel Ka pointed out.

“It would have to be an obvious meeting place, then,” Jaina said. “Something that’s easy to find on a planet this size.”

Lowie rumbled that the meeting place would need a good landing area nearby.

“Okay, that’s what we’re looking for, then.” Jaina nodded. “Trust me, I’ll know it when I see it.”

Jacen, Lowie, and Tenel Ka exchanged amused glances.

As it turned out, Jaina was right. Just before dawn she saw a broad-based mesa that rose a kilometer above the cracked and dusty plain. As they drew closer, it became clear that the plateau, which was close to three kilometers wide, was not really a mesa. The majority of the mountain’s flat top had collapsed into a deep crater, surrounded by an artificially broad, level rim, forming a gigantic natural arena.

Houses and tunnels and walkways and stairs had long ago been built into the interior sides of the crater. From the floor of the crater rose the ruins of a vast array of tall, crumbling buildings. A network of rusty chains connected the tops of these structures, like the web design of some deranged insect. Jaina brought the Rock Dragon in for a smooth landing on the broad lip of the crater.

“Here we are,” she said smugly. “Landmark. Easy to spot. Excellent landing area. This would be my guess.” Lowie agreed enthusiastically.

“Our sensors indicate no signs of airborne contaminants that would endanger the lives of humans or Wookiees,” Em Teedee assured them. “The atmosphere is perfectly breathable.”

“Everybody out, then,” Jaina said. “Time to stretch our legs.”

“Great,” Jacen sighed, unbuckling his crash webbing. He was already thinking about what kinds of unusual creatures they might encounter, hoping he would find some of the interesting specimens he had seen from the air.

“Now the next stage of our search begins,” Tenel Ka said. “The real work.” She followed Jacen down the shuttle’s exit ramp, breathing deeply of the dry air. Jaina and Lowie tumbled after them, eager to move about after their long journey.

Jacen ran to the edge of the deep crater and looked down at the patchwork of ancient buildings, chains, and walls dappled by shadows.

“It could take a long time to search all that,” he said. “It’s a whole city.”

Lowie gave a negative growl. “Lowie’s right. I think it would be more logical to start up here,” Jaina said. “The best place to set down a ship would be somewhere along this rim,” she made a sweeping gesture with one arm to indicate the wide ledge that encircled the crater, “rather than down there.”

After a brief consultation, the young Jedi Knights spread out from the rocky edge and spaced themselves to cover the greatest area. They walked slowly around the rim, scanning the ground ahead and to each side for any sign of a recent disturbance in the ancient settled dust.

After several false alarms—which turned out to be nothing more than a gouge out of the rock, a shiny feather, or some animal droppings—Jacen, who was closest to the outer rim, saw something flutter up ahead.

Shading his eyes with one hand against the direct glare of the early morning sun, he ran forward, certain in his heart that he had discovered something important. To his great disappointment, though, he found nothing more than a flat gray slab of rock, as large as one of the serving trays back at the Jedi academy.

His sister, Lowie, and Tenel Ka dashed up beside him.

“What is it?” Jaina asked.

“Nothing, I guess,” Jacen said. “I thought I saw something colorful moving over here—fluttering, kind of. Maybe it was just a bird or a plume of dust, I don’t know.”

Tenel Ka bent low and circled the rock.

“Ah. Aha,” she said. She reached beneath the edge and pulled.

“Lowbacca, my friend—?” she began, but before she could finish her request, Lowie had already lifted the slab of rock high overhead and tossed it aside down the steep edge inside the crater.

Tenel Ka straightened. In her hand she held a long piece of cloth, a sash, sewn from alternating strips of yellow, purple, red, and orange fabric.“The colors of the House of Thul,” she said matter-of-factly. “Raynar’s mother also wore such a sash.”

“Why, bless me,” Em Teedee exclaimed.

He was viewing the scene from a perspective that none of the others had. “Does the House of Thul also place inscriptions on its clothing?”

“Not that I’ve ever noticed,” Jacen said, wondering what the little droid was getting at.

“May I see that?” Jaina asked. Tenel Ka handed her the sash.

Jaina grasped the material with one hand near each end and stretched it out straight. She scanned the sash, then flipped it over. “Look!”

Jacen moved closer. Sure enough, there on the yellow band of material scratched in faint gray letters was a message.

“Danger,” it said. “If I am caught, all humans in mortal danger. Thul.”

“Gracious me!” Em Teedee exclaimed. “If this warning is genuine, then I do hope Master Thul is safe. If not, we’re doomed!”