Shadow Academy

21

Brakiss sat contemplating in his dim office, long after the other workers had retired for the night. He reveled in the dramatic images on his walls: galactic disasters in progress, the fury of the universe unleashed like a storm around him—with Brakiss as its calm center, able to touch those immense forces but not be affected by them.

Brakiss had just written up the plans for a swift attack on Yavin 4 so that he could steal more of Master Skywalker’s Jedi students. He had sent the encoded message deep into the Core Systems to the great Imperial leader, who had immediately approved his plans. The leader was eager to get more ready-chosen Jedi students to train as dark warriors.

The assault would occur in the next few days, while Skywalker was no doubt still reeling from the loss of the twins and the Wookiee, perhaps even away from Yavin 4 looking for them. Tamith Kai would go along for the assault. She needed the outlet to vent her anger, to drain some of the rage she kept bottled within herself. That way she could be more effective.

Brakiss stood and looked at the blindingly bright image of the Denarii Nova, two suns pouring fire onto each other. Something was bothering him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The day had gone routinely. The three young Jedi Knights were doing even better than he’d expected. But still Brakiss had a bad feeling, a low-level uneasiness.

He walked slowly out of his chambers, his silvery robes flickering around him like candlelight. He let the door of his office remain open as he turned to scrutinize the empty corridor. Everything was quiet, just as it should have been.

Brakiss frowned, decided he must be imagining things, and turned back toward his office. But before he could get there, the door slammed shut of its own accord. Brakiss found himself trapped outside his office.

Up and down the corridor the few open doors also sealed themselves. He heard clicking sounds as locking mechanisms engaged all around the station.

Automatic alarms shrieked. Brakiss would not tolerate such an interruption in his routine. Someone would be punished for this. He held the storm inside himself and strode down the halls, intent on squashing the disturbance.

Jacen, Jaina, and Lowie rushed into the docking bay, tense and ready to fight their way out of the Shadow Academy.

A gleaming Imperial shuttle of unusual design sat in the middle of the brightly lit landing pad, still going through its shutdown procedures. Other TIE fighters and Skipray blastboats stood locked down and in various stages of maintenance. The alarms continued their deafening racket.

Jacen saw movement in the shuttle and frantically gestured for the others to duck down, just in time to see two figures emerge from the entry ramp. One of the figures crouched and drew a lightsaber.

“Uncle Luke!” Jaina cried, springing to her feet.

The second figure, a fierce-looking girl, whirled, ready to attack. Her braided red-gold hair swept like a burst of flame across her gray eyes.

“And Tenel Ka!” Jacen said. “Hey, am I glad to see you!”

Lowie bellowed a delighted welcome.

“Well, it certainly is a relief to see familiar faces in the midst of all this infernal racket,” Em Teedee said.

“All right, kids,” Luke Skywalker said, “we came to rescue you—but since you managed to get yourselves this far, I guess we’re ready to go. Right now.”

Jaina issued a brisk report. “We managed to shut down the cloaking device, Uncle Luke. Sealed most of the doors on the station. Won’t be many people coming after us, but we should get out of here as soon as we can.”

“How will we get the sealed space doors open again?” Tenel Ka said, looking over her broad shoulders. “It will be difficult to open them without help from someone inside. Is this not a fact?”

Lowie answered her with an extended series of growls and snorts. He waved his lanky arms.

Em Teedee, his chrome back plate still rattling loose behind him, scolded, “No, you cannot do it yourself, Lowbacca. You’re getting delusions of grandeur again. It was I who helped bring down the Shadow Academy’s defenses and … oh—oh dear, what have I done?”

“Maybe I can help,” Jaina said. “Let’s get into the shuttle cockpit. We’ll try it from there.”

Up in the control center for the docking bay, Qorl stood amazed as the unexpected alarms continued.

He watched the three young Jedi Knights rush into the large room below. The Shadow Chaser had just returned from a supply run to Dathomir, and a sandy-haired man emerged with a tough-looking young lady. Qorl recognized her as one of the Jedi students who had worked on his crashed TIE fighter back in the jungle.

As soon as the alarms sounded, Qorl knew that Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca were somehow behind the disturbance. The other Dark Jedi students were pleased to have an opportunity to increase their powers and appreciated their training; but Qorl had been certain these three would cause trouble—especially since Brakiss and Tamith Kai seemed determined to injure or kill them.

Qorl had been gravely disturbed at the supposed duel to the death between the holographically disguised brother and sister. He also knew the dangerous testing routine with flying stones and knives had already been responsible for the deaths of half a dozen promising Shadow Academy trainees.

He didn’t agree with Brakiss’s tactics, but Qorl was just a pilot; no one listened to his point of view, no matter how certain he was. Yet Qorl served his Empire, and he had to do what he knew was right.

He opened the comm channel and gruffly reported. “Master Brakiss, Tamith Kai—anyone who can hear me. The prisoners are attempting to escape. They are currently in the main docking bay. I believe they intend to steal the Shadow Chaser. All of my defenses are down because of computer failure. If you can offer assistance, please come to the main docking bay immediately.”

Tamith Kai’s violet eyes snapped open, and she leaped from her hard, uncomfortable bunk at the first sound of alarm. She came instantly awake, her mind burning with demands to know what was going on. Someone was threatening the Shadow Academy.

The Nightsister threw on her black cloak, which swirled around her with glittering silvery lines, like the trails of stars during a launch into hyperspace. She reached the door to her quarters, but it would not open. She pounded on it, punched the override controls, but the locking mechanisms remained engaged.

“Let me out!” she snarled. Tamith Kai worked the controls once more, again with no success. Her rage built within her. Something was happening, something terrible—and she knew the three kidnapped trainees were behind it all! They had caused more trouble than they were worth. The Shadow Academy could find so many other willing trainees in all the worlds of the galaxy that regardless of the talent of these three, their potential for disaster was too great.

She would destroy them once and for all, and then the Shadow Academy could settle back into its smooth, regular routine, with Tamith Kai dominating and Brakiss running the details. Then she could be happy again.

Her fingers coiled, and a smoky black electricity curled between them. “Out!” she roared. “I must get out!” Tamith Kai slashed with both of her hands in an opening gesture as she cried her command.

With an explosion of power, the doors bent backward, folding down in a burst of smoke and sparks from the sheared-off wiring in the controls. Then using her bare hands, she tore one of the heavy metal plates completely out of its tracks and tossed it with a loud clonngg! onto the floor. Tamith Kai stormed out, her eyes shimmering like violet lava.

Qorl’s message came over the hall comm systems, and Tamith Kai did not let her anger slacken for an instant. The docking bay. She strode forward at high speed.

While Jacen, Jaina, and Lowie scrambled aboard the Shadow Chaser, Luke remained outside with Tenel Ka. He glanced back and shouted to the twins. “I need to know about this place. There’s something familiar and … very wrong here.”

“Yes,” Jaina said. “Uncle Luke, the person running the Shadow Academy is—”

But Luke had become distracted—fascinated, really. He suddenly stood up straighter, his eyebrows drawing together. “Wait,” he said. “I sense something. A presence I haven’t felt in a long time.”

He walked slowly across the bay and drew his lightsaber again, feeling a storm in the Force, a deadly conflict. As if in a trance, Luke strode toward one of the sealed red doors that led deeper into the academy station.

“Hey, Uncle Luke!” Jacen cried, but Luke held up a hand for the boy to wait.

They needed to escape soon—it was their only chance. They had to seize the moment. But Luke also had to see, had to know. Behind him, he heard the weapons systems of the Shadow Chaser powering up. The ship’s external laser cannon turrets raised and locked into firing position.

When the red door slid open ahead of him, Luke Skywalker stood transfixed. He stared at the sculpture-handsome face of his former student.

“Brakiss!” he whispered in a voice that carried across the docking bay, even above the chaos of shrieking alarms.

Brakiss stood where he was with a faint smile. “Ah, Master Skywalker. So good of you to come. I thought I sensed you here on my station. Are you impressed at how well I have done for myself?”

Luke held his lightsaber out in front of him, but Brakiss remained outside in the corridor and did not step across the threshold.

“Oh, come now,” Brakiss said with a dismissive wave, “if you intended to kill me, you should have done it when I was a weak trainee. You knew I was an Imperial agent even then.”

“I wanted to give you the chance to save yourself,” Luke said.

“Always the optimist,” Brakiss replied in an airy tone.

Luke felt cold inside. He didn’t want to fight Brakiss, especially not now. They had little time. But didn’t he have to confront his former student somehow—resolve their conflict?

They had to go now. He needed to escape with the kids before the Shadow Academy managed to get its defenses back on-line again.

Brakiss held out his soft, empty hands. “Come and get me, Master Skywalker—or are you a coward? Would your precious light side allow you to attack an unarmed man?”

“The Force is my ally, Brakiss,” Luke said. “And you have learned to use it to your own ends. You are never unarmed, any more than I am.”

“All right, have it your way,” Brakiss said. He brushed the fabric of his shimmering robe and made ready to step forward. His eyes blazed now, as if he held the fury of the universe within him, ready to unleash it from his fingertips.

Just then, an explosion of hot energy streaked past Luke’s head from behind and melted the door controls. With a second blast from the Shadow Chaser’s laser cannon, the controls were completely fried. The heavy metal plates slammed back into place, sealing Brakiss and Luke apart from each other.

“Uncle Luke, come on!” Jaina yelled from the ship. “We have to go.”

Luke shuddered with stunned relief, turned, and sprinted back toward the shuttle. He knew it wasn’t over between him and Brakiss; but that would have to wait for another time.

Jaina and Lowie and Em Teedee linked into the Shadow Chasers computers, trying to open the station’s huge space door from within. While they worked, Tenel Ka raced around the docking bay, sealing all of the red doorways, making sure that none would open. The ominous man in the silvery robes had stalled Luke, and they couldn’t afford another skirmish like that. Tenel Ka had to seal the doors, just in case a contingent of stormtroopers made its way to the docking bay.

Luke climbed into the shuttle. Tenel Ka sealed another metal door, then ran to the last one. Just as her fingers touched the controls, though, the door slid open. A tall, dark woman loomed in front of Tenel Ka, crackling with angry energy and ready to attack.

Tenel Ka looked up and instantly knew what this person was. “A Nightsister!” she hissed.

The dark woman glared down at her with a similar flash of recognition. “And you are from Dathomir, girl! I claim you. You are a fitting replacement for the three I am about to destroy.”

Tenel Ka stood in front of the Nightsister, her arms and legs spread like a barrier. “You will have to get through me first.”

The dark woman laughed. “If you insist.” She struck with the Force, an invisible blow that nearly knocked Tenel Ka sideways—but the young woman deflected it and stood strong, lips clamping together in determination.

The Nightsister drew herself taller in surprise, looking like a black bird of prey. “Ah, so you are already familiar with the Force. That will make it easier for me to train you, to turn you.”

Tenel Ka remained tense and rigid, glaring at her opponent. “This is not a fact. And I will not let you harm my friends.”

The Nightsister seemed to snap as her anger came free of its delicate cage. “Then I won’t hesitate to destroy you as well!” Her black robes rippled like a thunderstorm. Locking her violet gaze on Tenel Ka, she raised her clawed hands, fingers outspread, glossy dark hair crackling with static as her body charged with electrical power.

Tenel Ka stood directly in front of her, unflinching, as the dark Force built to a climax within the Nightsister.

Without warning, Tenel Ka lashed out with her foot, putting all of the strength of her muscular, athletic legs behind the kick. The sharp toe of her hard, scaled boot struck the Nightsister’s unarmored kneecap. Tenel Ka distinctly heard the crunch of a breaking bone and tearing muscles as her blow struck home. The Nightsister shrieked and fell to the ground, writhing in agony.

Calm and self-satisfied, Tenel Ka stared down at her with cool gray eyes. “I never use the Force unless I have to,” she said. “Sometimes old-fashioned methods are just as effective.”

Leaving the Nightsister moaning on the floor, Tenel Ka jogged back toward the Shadow Chaser, where Luke was gesturing for her to hurry. She climbed aboard, and the ship doors sealed.

Alarms continued to sound, their clamor muffled inside the cockpit of the Shadow Chaser. Luke piloted the vehicle, raising it off the floor on its repulsorfields. Jaina and Lowie still worked desperately to open the heavy space doors.

With a loud crrummp, two sets of the red metal doors blasted open. Smoke from detonators curled out, and white-armored stormtroopers charged in, blasting at the shuttle.

“You’d better get that space door open,” Luke said. “Soon.”

Lowie yowled. “We’re trying!” Jaina said, keying in a new command string, working even more furiously.

More stormtroopers came through. Blaster fire sprayed across the room. They could hear the splatter and boom of impacts. But the Shadow Chasers armor held.

“We’ve got company,” Luke said, staring at the sealed bay doors. “We’re out of time.”

“I can’t get the—,” Jaina began, and suddenly the heavy doors cracked open, spreading wide for the Shadow Chaser. The atmosphere-containment field shimmered in front of the star-strewn blackness, but now the shuttle could launch into open space.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jaina said, trying to cover her confusion.

“Let’s go!” Luke shouted, and punched the accelerators.

Everyone grabbed the arms of their seats as the launch threw them back. The Shadow Chaser roared away from the Imperial station, leaving the huge, spiked structure uncloaked in space behind them.

Luke heaved a loud sigh of relief as he punched the escape coordinates into the navicomputer. “Let’s get back to Yavin 4,” he said.

None of the young Jedi Knights objected, and they surged into hyperspace.

“Good work, Jaina and Lowie,” Luke finally said. “I didn’t think you’d ever get that docking-bay door open.”

Lowbacca mumbled something unintelligible, and Jaina fidgeted. “Uh, Uncle Luke,” she said, “I kind of hate to mention this, but—we didn’t get the door open.”

Luke shrugged, not wanting to quibble. “Well, we owe our thanks to whoever did it.”

Qorl stood by the docking-bay controls, watching the Shadow Chaser disappear. The escape left absolute turmoil in its wake as the Shadow Academy scrambled to regroup. Qorl touched the space door controls, smiled faintly to himself, and then closed the doors. He would, of course, never tell Brakiss or Tamith Kai.

Brakiss came into the control room next to Qorl, exhausted and troubled. “Is our cloaking shield up yet? We must get it working. The Rebels will no doubt send attack fleets in search of us. We’ll have to relocate. That’s why this station was designed to be mobile.”

Brakiss drummed his fingertips on one of the control panels. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to our great Imperial leader. He can trigger this station’s self-destruct sequence at any time, if he’s displeased.”

Qorl nodded grimly. “Perhaps he won’t be quite that displeased … this time.”

Brakiss looked at him. “We can only hope.”

Tamith Kai limped into the control chamber, utterly outraged. Her eyes still glowed with violet fire, and her hands were set in clawed curves, as if she wanted to shred hull plates with her fingernails. “So they’ve escaped! You let them get away?”

Brakiss looked at her mildly. “I didn’t let them do anything, Tamith Kai. I don’t see what more we could have done. Our duty now is to get away and plan our next step—because you can be sure there will be another opportunity”

Qorl powered up the station engines, and they began moving the Shadow Academy to a new hiding place.