Shadow Academy

6

Jaina came back to consciousness with Lowie shaking her shoulders. The lanky Wookiee moaned plaintively until she groaned and woke up, blinking her eyes.

A rush of unpleasant sensations flooded through her: queasy stomach, pounding head, aching joints—aftereffects of the stormtroopers’ stun beams. The human body wasn’t designed to be knocked out with a blast of energy. Her ears hummed, too, but her instincts told her that the sounds were real—the rumbling vibrations of a big ship in hyperdrive.

Uncertain about whether she dared risk a more vertical position, Jaina cautiously turned her head. She saw that she, Jacen, and Lowbacca were together in a small, nondescript room. Jaina took a deep breath, scratched her straight brown hair, and ran her hands down her grease-smeared jumpsuit to make sure everything was still intact.

Suddenly recalling the attack on GemDiver Station, Jaina sat up so quickly that a fresh wave of nausea washed over her and pain exploded at her temples. She gasped, then forced herself to relax and let some of the pain drain away. “Where are we?” she asked.

Jacen was already sitting up on a narrow pallet, rubbing his brandy-brown eyes and running long fingers through his tousled hair. He wore a look of confusion, and Jaina sensed deep turmoil coming from her brother. “Not a clue,” he said.

Lowbacca also made a dismayed, questioning sound.

“Least we’re all together,” Jaina said. “And they didn’t put binders on us.” She held up her hands, surprised that the Imperials had not separated their prisoners and tied them up. Water and a food tray lay in an alcove by the wall. From the looks of it, Lowie had already sampled some of the fruit.

“Hey, I wonder what happened to everyone at GemDiver Station. What do you suppose they did to Lando?” Jacen asked.

Jaina shrugged, still feeling queasy. “Saw him lying unconscious just before they stunned us. But I don’t think they planned to kill him. They weren’t looking for Corusca gems, either. Seems like they only wanted the three of us”

“Yeah … kinda makes you feel valuable, huh?” Jacen agreed glumly. Lowie growled.

Jaina stood up and stretched, feeling better as she moved. “Guess I’m okay, though. How about you two?”

Jacen smiled reassuringly, and Lowie nodded his shaggy head. The streak of black fur that swept over his eyebrows bristled with uneasiness. He smoothed the fur back and grunted.

It was then that Jaina noticed something else wrong. She looked down at the Wookiee’s waist, but the miniaturized translating droid was no longer there.

“Lowie! What happened to Em Teedee?”

Lowie made a strange, sad sound and patted his waist.

“Imperials must’ve taken it from him,” Jaina said. “What do they want?”

“Oh, just to take over the galaxy, cause a bunch of problems … hurt a lot of people—you know, the usual,” Jacen answered flippantly He went over to the flat metal door. “Hmmmm … it’s probably locked, but there’s no harm in trying,” he said, tapping the controls with his fingers.

To Jaina’s surprise, the door hummed sideways to reveal a guard standing at attention just outside. A stormtrooper in a skull-like white helmet turned to face them.

“Whoa!” Jacen cried, then he lowered his voice. “Well, at least the door opens.”

“Maybe they just can’t figure out how to lock the door,” Jaina said. “Remember how clunky and unreliable Imperial technology is.” She let sarcasm seep into her voice for the guard’s benefit. “And you know how lousy stormtrooper armor is. Probably couldn’t even stop a water blaster.”

“Just walk past him,” Jacen suggested in a stage whisper, seeing that the stormtrooper hadn’t moved. “Maybe he won’t stop us.”

The stormtrooper shouldered his blaster rifle. “Wait here.” The filtered voice coming through the white helmet was flat, but somehow menacing. The guard spoke quietly into his helmet comlink, then shut the three young Jedi Knights in their cell again.

They sat in anxious silence for a moment. “We could tell jokes,” Jacen suggested.

Before Jaina could think of an appropriate answer, the cell door whisked open again. This time, beside the stormtrooper stood the towering, sinister woman from the assault on GemDiver Station. Jaina took a quick breath.

The tall woman’s black hair flowed like waves of darkness down her shoulders, and her ebony cape sparkled with bits of polished gems, swirling around her like a starry night sky. Her violet eyes blazed in a face so pale it seemed carved from polished bone. Her lips were a dark wine color, as if she had just eaten an overripe fruit. The woman was beautiful—in a cruel sort of way.

“So, Jedi Knights, you are awake at last,” she snapped. Her voice was deep and thick, without the hissing edge Jaina had expected. “I must begin by saying how disappointed I am in you. I had hoped for more resistance from such powerful students already trained in the Force. Your Jedi defenses were pitiful! But we shall change that. You will be taught new ways. Effective ways.”

The woman spun on one heel, and her black cloak swept around her like trailing smoke. “Follow me,” she said, and stepped into the corridor.

“No,” Jaina responded. “Who do you think you are? Why have you brought us here against our will?”

“I said follow!” the woman repeated. When they made no move to comply, she pointed her polished nails at them and twitched her fingers.

Suddenly, it felt as if a resilient invisible cord had wrapped around Jaina’s throat. The woman crooked her finger, yanking at Jaina as if she were a pet on a leash. Jaina lurched as the invisible rope hauled her out of the cell.

Lowbacca and Jacen strained against similar bonds of Force, the Wookiee yowling his defiance. Despite their struggles, all three children were dragged on Force leashes tripping and stumbling into the corridor.

“I can do this all the way to the bridge, if you like,” the woman said, her deep red lips curved into a mocking smile. “Or, you can save your energies for more productive resistance later.”

“All right,” Jaina croaked, sensing that this woman had dark Jedi powers she could not match—at least not yet.

When the Force bonds dropped away, the companions stood gasping and trembling. They looked at each other in angry humiliation, knowing they were beaten.

Jaina was the first to recover. Swallowing hard, she stood straight, put her chin in the air, and followed the woman in black. Her brother and Lowie fell in behind Jaina. “Who are you?” Jaina asked after a while.

The woman paused in midstep, as if considering, then answered. “My name is Tamith Kai. I am from a new order of Nightsisters.”

“Nightsisters? You mean like on Dathomir?” Jacen asked.

Jaina remembered the stories their friend Tenel Ka told when it was her turn to scare them before they practiced Jedi calming techniques—stories of the horrible evil women who had once twisted civilization on her world.

Tamith Kai looked at Jacen, her wine-dark lips set in something between a scowl and a smile. “You’ve heard of us? Good. My planet is rich in Force-wielders, and the Empire has helped to bring us back. Now perhaps you’ll realize you can’t resist. Cooperation, on the other hand, will be rewarded.”

“We won’t cooperate with you,” Jaina challenged.

“Yes, yes,” Tamith Kai said, as if bored. “All in good time.”

“Hey, where are you taking us?” Jacen asked, walking quickly to keep pace with his sister. Lowie strode behind them, grumbling and fumbling at his waist as if he actually missed Em Teedee.

“You’ll see soon enough,” the Nightsister said. “We are almost ready to leave hyperspace.”

All four of them stepped onto a lift platform that carried them up a level and opened out onto the bridge of the fleeing ship. The single pilot sat with his back to them in a padded high-backed chair, hunched over the controls. Ahead, through the bridge viewports Jaina could see the swirling colors of hyperspace.

The pilot reached out with his right hand and grabbed a lever as a countdown trickled to zero. Then he yanked the lever, and hyperspace suddenly unfolded, washing away into the star-studded darkness of normal space.

“We’re near the Core Systems,” Jaina said immediately, looking out at the rich starfields and the streamers of interstellar gas clotted together near the center of the galaxy.

The crowded Core Systems were the last bastions of Imperial power; not even New Republic forces had been able to flush them out completely. But they had arrived nowhere close to any system. They found themselves merely hanging, out in the middle of the star-strewn blackness.

“We have reached our destination, Tamith Kai,” the pilot said, swiveling in his tall chair.

Jaina’s heart leaped as she recognized the weary, hard-bitten face and iron-gray hair of the former TIE pilot who had been stranded on Yavin 4 for so many years.

“Qorl!” Jacen exclaimed.

Lowie roared in anger.

Qorl had attacked them in the jungles when the young Jedi Knights had found his crashed TIE fighter and tried to fix it. The Imperial pilot had shot at Lowie and Tenel Ka, who had managed to escape into the undergrowth, but Qorl had taken Jacen and Jaina prisoner.

“Greetings, young friends. I never did thank you for fixing my ship and allowing me to return to my Empire.”

“You betrayed us!” Jaina cried, feeling a surge of anger toward the brainwashed man. While being held captive, the twins had befriended Qorl, exchanging stories with him around the campfire. Jaina had felt sure the TIE pilot was softening, realizing that the ways of the Empire were filled with lies. But in the end, Qorl’s military conditioning had been too strong.

“I returned as any soldier would and gave my report,” Qorl said in a dull voice. “These people accepted me and … reindoctrinated me. I told them of your existence—powerful young Jedi Knights just waiting to be trained to serve the Empire.”

“Never,” Jaina and Jacen snapped in unison, and Lowbacca agreed with a roar.

Tamith Kai looked down at them mockingly. Standing beside Qorl, the dark-haired woman seemed even taller than before, more intimidating than ever. “Your anger is good,” she said. “Fuel it. Let it grow. We will use it when your training begins. But for now … we have reached our destination.”

Lowie gave a growl of disbelief.

Jaina looked out the front viewports, trying to calm herself. Master Skywalker had said that giving in to anger was a path to the dark side of the Force. She must not lash out, she knew; she must think of some other way to fight back.

“We’re in the middle of empty space,” Jaina said. “What is there for us to see?”

“Space is not always empty,” Tamith Kai said. Her thick voice held a singsong quality, as if her mind was thinking of something else. “Reality is not always what it seems.”

At his station Qorl verified the coordinates, then punched in a security code. “Transmitting now,” he said.

Tamith Kai turned her sharp violet eyes toward the young Jedi Knights. “You are about to begin a new phase of your lives,” she said, pointing to the viewscreens. “Behold.”

Space shimmered like a blanket of invisibility peeling away. Suddenly a space station hung in front of them, torus-shaped, like a donut. Weapons emplacements ringed the station’s entire perimeter, pointing in all directions, making it look like a spiked disciplinary collar for some ferocious beast. Tall observation towers rose like pinnacles on one side of the station.

Jaina swallowed hard.

“Cloaking device off,” Qorl announced.

“Take a good look,” Tamith Kai said, but she did not glance at the viewscreens. Her eyes glittered with violet fervor at the children. “Here you’ll be trained as Dark Jedi … for the Empire.”

Qorl spoke up, reminding her. “We must commence docking immediately and reactivate the invisibility shielding.”

The Nightsister nodded but did not seem to hear, never taking her eyes off the young Jedi Knights. “Welcome to the Shadow Academy,” she whispered.