Diversity Alliance

11

Under the hazy midmorning sunshine of Kuar, Jacen stood with the other young Jedi Knights outside the Rock Dragon. They talked earnestly, waiting until all ideas had been discussed to make their decision. It reminded Jacen of those political meetings his mother always complained about … but now he saw the necessity for careful planning. Considering the ominous message on the sash, he and Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie needed to be certain their next step in the quest to find Raynar’s father was a prudent one.

“Well, we know he came here,” Jacen said, “and had some kind of important meeting, then left that warning written on his sash.”

Tenel Ka nodded, her warrior braids swinging like red-gold chains. “Yes, and the business Bornan Thul transacted must be connected with his disappearance.”

Jaina paced on the weathered ground. “But what was it? And why did they come to this planet? Is Kuar just an out-of-the-way meeting place—or was there some connection to the ancient Mandalorians?”

Jacen rubbed his hands together and grinned eagerly. “Hey, I think we should explore those ruins some more. There’s plenty of places we haven’t looked into. Who knows what clues we might still find?”

Lowie growled, his fur ruffling. Em Teedee translated. “Yes indeed—and who knows what vicious creatures we might find?”

Jacen bobbed his head, still grinning. “Yeah, just think?”

Holding on to the thick rusted chains, careful to avoid the broken staircases and treacherous ramps, the young Jedi Knights made their way down the cliff wall into the stadium. Out in the hazy distance, clouds of dust hung like brown soup in the air.

The bowl-shaped crater had once been the home of towering buildings, a crowded and sheltered city. Later, the Mandalorians had turned the entire crater into a fighting arena. Now, though, the forgotten metropolis lay abandoned and decaying, filled with thousands upon thousands of years of unrecorded history.

The companions worked their way along open galleries gouged into the cliff. Tenel Ka pointed out that the Mandalorians had allowed spectators to watch violent gladiatorial combats from such galleries.

But it looked as if no spectator had sat in these stands for half the age of the galaxy, and the Mandalorian warriors who had once made their homes here had long since moved on in their endless nomadic conquests.

In the shadowed interiors of alcoves and stadium rooms, Jacen marveled at the immense outgrowths of shelf fungus, colored pale pink and lavender and peach; some mushrooms formed circular platforms, while others rose up in conical spikes like stalagmites. Centipedelike insects burrowed through the foamy flesh of the fungus, making miniature warrens.

Jaina studied the scuffed dust around their feet. “Looks like something moved through here not long ago.”

Jacen perked up. “Do you think it might have been Raynar’s father—or whoever he was meeting here?”

“This is difficult to determine. The prints are blurred,” Tenel Ka said, bending down. “The tracks could be human … or some other creature. We must be cautious.”

“You’re always cautious, Tenel Ka,” Jacen said. “It’s one of the things I like about you.”

“There’s certainly a great deal to be said for being cautious, Master Jacen,” Em Teedee intoned.

Jaina turned her glowrod toward an arched opening to a passage that led deeper into the cliffside. “This looks like a main tunnel,” she said. Her light splashed on a fallen pillar and rooms filled with crumbling rock from collapsed ceilings and walls.

The scuffed tracks led deeper into the tunnel, and Jacen scratched his tousled brown hair, trying to imagine why Bornan Thul would have gone inside this chamber.

Had some precious artifact been hidden here, away from prying eyes? What was he after, and why would it spell doom for all humans if he was caught with it?

Inside the passage, shadows clung to them like a blanket soaked in oil. They pushed onward, clustering close to Jaina’s glowrod. “Master Lowbacca,” Em Teedee said, “would you be so kind as to reposition me? I’m afraid my optical sensors are picking up nothing more than the rock wall of the tunnel. From this angle I can’t even add to the level of illumination in here.”

Lowbacca sniffed the sluggish, stale air, growled low in his throat, and reached down to move Em Teedee to a better position on his syren-fiber belt.

“I will provide us with more light as well,” Tenel Ka said. She removed her lightsaber and gripped its intricately carved bone-white handle. She pushed the power stud, and her brilliant turquoise energy beam flashed out like a javelin made of light, dazzling them all.

Just then the monster struck.

The creature charged toward them, a huge battering ram of spined legs, jointed footpads, an armored body core, and fangs … many fangs. The thing seemed as large as an Imperial scout walker.

“Oh, do look out!” Em Teedee said.

Tenel Ka leaped in front of the beast as the other young Jedi Knights fell back, scrambling for their lightsabers.

Jacen tried to focus his dazzled eyes as the glistening creature thundered forward.

A bone-jarring roar emanated from a gullet deep behind its clacking jaws. The monster was spiderlike and enormous; spines like wicked thorns sprouted from every joint. Its body core was crimson, splotched with a jagged marking on its back that looked like a death’s-head.

Jacen recognized the creature. “I think that’s a combat arachnid,” he said. “They’re very rare and very deadly. I never thought I’d get to see one.”

“Aren’t we lucky,” Jaina said. She drew her own lightsaber, but Tenel Ka was bearing the brunt of the creature’s attention.

The warrior girl held her lightsaber up-fight, her jaw set, her face grim. She swept the blade back and forth, ripping a gash of light through the air. “Stay back!” she snarled.

The monster reached out with a long clawed foreleg, trying to grab Tenel Ka, but she slashed low, slicing off its footpad. The creature bellowed and reared back, jabbing its spined legs at her like an armful of lances. Slashing again, the warrior girl drove in and severed another of its many legs.

Lowbacca ignited his molten bronze lightsaber with a roar of challenge, and stepped forward.

“Do we have to kill it?” Jacen said, trying to think of an alternative.

Drool slathered the combat arachnid’s grinding jaws, and its many bulbous eyes looked like black pearls reflecting the lines of light that danced over its polished exoskeleton.

Jaina said, “This is one creature you’re not taking home as a pet, Jacen.”

Reluctantly lighting his emerald-green lightsaber, he stood ready to fight beside his friends.

Teeth bared, Lowbacca planted himself next to Tenel Ka, swinging his lightsaber like a club. He nipped off several sharp spines that rose from the combat arachnid’s back, but one of the creature’s forelimbs flashed out and tore into his fur, making the young Wookiee stagger back ward.

“Lowbacca?” Em Teedee scolded. Lowie roared in pain as he looked at the shallow wound along his rib cage.

Jaina chopped away another flailing leg, but the combat arachnid had too many limbs—and now it was angered and in pain. The beast pressed them back, trapping them between a pile of fallen rock and the wall.

“Uh-oh, looks like we can’t get out,” Jacen said. He stood in front of his sister, his green lightsaber held high, but the combat arachnid swatted him aside, knocking him into Tenel Ka. In the instant the warrior girl lost her balance, the creature struck. It grabbed Tenel Ka and lifted her up into the air, ready to kill her.

“No!” Jacen cried. “Tenel Ka!” He tried to reach the monsters mind through the Force, but the creature reared up and trumpeted a challenge.

Bellowing, Lowie charged into the fray.

The enraged combat arachnid knocked him backward, its spined limbs jabbing like sharp spears in every direction. Its jaws clucked together, ready to shred flesh from Tenel Ka’s bones.

Jacen didn’t think he could attack in time to save his friend. The creature was too powerful. It could sustain a great deal of damage and many more wounds before it suffered a mortal injury. Jacen drew a deep breath, determined to attack anyway.

Just then, Jacen saw a movement in the opening out into the sunlight. A tall hairy silhouette appeared. It let out a deep-throated, yet somehow melodious, Wookiee roar and fired a powerful blaster rifle. The dazzling energy bolt splashed across the combat arachnid’s lower set of eyes; another blast followed, and a third struck the remaining eyes on the spider creature.

The combat arachnid’s thick shell was too strong to be split open by a mere hand weapon, but the creature hissed and flailed.

With a shuddering spasm it dropped Tenel Ka and backed up against the wall, its jointed forelimbs writhing and clawing at its eyes.

The female Wookiee voice growled, and Jacen, who was closest, could hear enough of the words to understand the message with his meager grasp of the Wookiee language.

“It’s temporarily blinded,” he translated. “We’ve got to get out of here before it recovers and attacks us again.”

“No argument from me,” Jaina said, picking herself up. Lowie, pressing a hairy paw to his injured side, staggered away from the battleground. His hand rapidly became covered with blood.

Jacen helped a stunned but otherwise uninjured Tenel Ka to stand, pulling her arm around his shoulder so that he could walk outside with her.

As they returned to the wan sunlight, Jacen got a good look at the tall chocolate-brown Wookiee, a female wearing a tattered weapons belt to which were clipped many sonic grenades and thermal detonators.

Lowbacca stopped and stared at her, absolutely stricken. He groaned. Jacen could tell that Lowie had said no actual words: he had merely voiced an expression of amazement and disbelief.

The female Wookiee spoke again, and Em Teedee bleeped in surprise, recognizing the name. “Raabakyysh? Master Lowbacca are you saying that this is your deceased Wookiee friend from Kashyyyk—the one who disappeared in the deepest levels of the forest?”

Jacen gasped. “Blaster bolts! This is Raaba? You mean she’s not dead after all? How did you escape?”

“Uh, can we talk about it later?” Jaina urged, throwing a glance over her shoulder.

With a noncommital grunt, the female Wookiee gestured for them to hurry. They ran after her, knowing there would be time for questions, many questions, after they were safe.

Once the combat arachnid was a good distance behind them, Jacen let himself become engrossed in speculation about what had happened to Lowbacca’s dear friend and where she had been for all this time.