Shards of Alderaan

9

Jacen rushed into the communication center and looked around at the mind-boggling display of equipment the New Republic engineers were installing. He couldn’t see any cause for an emergency, but Raynar had told him he was urgently needed here.

The young blond-haired boy from Alderaan had run with him through the corridors of the Great Temple into the middle of this hotbed of repair work. The two stood panting, surrounded by all the activity.

At one station Lowie was busy rewiring the new shield generator console. Tenel Ka assembled components for a larger, sharper comm screen, holding each piece in place with her chin or a knee and then fastening it down with clamps and anchors. His sister Jaina bounced around the room with feverish enthusiasm, in the midst of twelve different projects at once.

Jacen found the excitement vaguely bewildering—it was only a bunch of components and electronics, after all … nothing interesting. Oh, he was competent enough at running equipment, but he didn’t have an understanding with machines like Jaina did. Instead, Jacen had an understanding with living creatures of all sizes. He’d been in his quarters feeding his pets when Raynar had summoned him.

Now that Jacen had arrived, though, no one seemed to notice. “Hey, don’t everybody greet me at once,” he said. He turned to Raynar beside him. “So what’s the cause for alarm?”

The blond boy adjusted his newly washed robes and tightened his sash—a dull brown sash, Jacen noticed, not a color Raynar usually wore. He wondered if it had anything to do with the disappearance of his father.

“They, uh, said some creature got into a transformer housing,” he stammered, darting nervous glances toward the back of the room. “Tenel Ka suggested you might be able to coax it out, so I, urn, ran to get you.”

It gave Jacen a warm feeling to know Tenel Ka had thought of him to solve a problem. Even with only one arm, she had proved herself so good at everything she did that Jacen often felt like a bumbling buffoon around her. But Tenel Ka had asked for him—and this was something he was good at. He would be proud to help her.

He grinned at Raynar, but the other boy didn’t grin back.

“Do you think it’s safe?” Raynar asked hesitantly. “The creature might be poisonous.”

Jacen shut his eyes for a moment and sent a thought searching through the room, past the flurry of Jedi students and New Republic engineers….

There. He had it. Jacen opened his eyes. “Well, it’s not a crystal snake, if that’s what you’re worried about. Nothing dangerous.”

“Well, if you’re sure, I’ll go back to my station,” Raynar said, twisting his brown sash into knots around his fingers.

“This’ll take just a few minutes,” Jacen answered. “There’s nothing lurking anywhere near your comm console. Don’t worry.” Raynar nodded and cautiously went back to his workstation.

Jacen headed to where Tenel Ka worked quickly and methodically, clad only in her lizard-hide armor, a pair of boots, and a tool belt. “Hey, Tenel Ka. How do you tell the difference between a rancor?” he asked brightly.

Tenel Ka turned her cool gray eyes toward him and raised an eyebrow. “I believe that one of its legs are both the same.”

Jacen blinked in surprise. “You’ve heard that one before?”

“Yes.” Tenel Ka did not stop working. “Please hold this. Thank you. Your joke is a well-known piece of non-sequitur humor from my mother’s clan on Dathomir. Most people don’t understand it—even fewer find it funny.”

Jacen slapped his forehead. “I should have known. Anyway, Raynar said you wanted to see me.”

“Ah. Aha.” She gestured toward a metallic box fastened near the ceiling. “I had hoped you could convince the creature to leave the power transformer housing before it comes to harm, or before it causes any damage to the circuitry.”

“Hey, that’s great, Tenel Ka. I think you’re really starting to understand how I feel about animals and why I like to collect pets.”

“Perhaps,” she said. Then in a drier voice she added, “I also had no wish to disassemble and reassemble the transformer housing.”

Jacen felt himself flush. Well, at least she had asked for his help, which was rare enough for Tenel Ka.

Jacen rolled a portable piece of lightweight scaffolding against the wall, locked it into place, then clambered up to where the uninvited reptilian guest had hidden. Placing his palm under a hole in the transformer housing, Jacen sent enticing thoughts to the creature inside. Warm. Safe. Warm. Food.

He concentrated, adding reassurance and calm thoughts, tempting the creature. In less than a minute, a spotted thyrsi slithered out and curled happily on Jacen’s palm. Long and flexible, the thyrsi looked like a skinny snake with twelve tiny legs.

“You just crawled in there for the heat, didn’t you?” Jacen crooned, cupping it in his hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll take you someplace that’s nice and warm.” He turned, holding on to the scaffolding with his free hand, careful to maintain his balance. Out of the corner of his eye, Jacen caught a flash of brightly colored robes.

“I just got a message that a ship’s coming down to the landing clearing, on final approach,” Raynar said. “It’s the Millennium Falcon returning from Coruscant.”

Jacen was just clambering down to the next level of the scaffolding. “Hey, Dad didn’t tell us he was coming back again so soon—” He loosened his hold for only a moment, but his balance was off. Trying to protect the thyrsi from harm, he tumbled backward toward the floor—

—only to be caught on a cushion of air just centimeters before he hit the flagstones. Jacen touched down lightly and breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his head to see Tenel Ka and Raynar standing together, locked in concentration.

Concern was written all over the Alderaan boy’s flushed face. He swirled the sleeves of his colored robes. “Sorry I distracted you, Jacen. Are you all right?”

Tenel Ka stretched out her arm and helped Jacen to his feet. “It takes a good deal of practice,” she said, “to climb with only one hand.”

“No kidding,” Jacen said. He held up his other hand to show her the thyrsi. “At least we’re both safe and sound,” he added, a bit sheepishly. Once again, he had bumbled in front of Tenel Ka! There didn’t seem to be any easy way to impress her.

Jaina and Lowie had rushed over in response to Raynar’s announcement. After seeing that her brother was all right despite the mishap, Jaina grinned mischievously at him. “Nice maneuver, laser brain.”

Lowie gave an urf of laughter.

To cover his embarrassment, Jacen turned to Raynar. “Hey, let’s go meet Dad and see if he’s heard anything about your father.”

The other boy perked up, showing sudden, intense interest.

Jacen cradled the thyrsi as they all ran out of the communications center. Along the way, he would find a warm spot on some sunbaked stones, well away from the reconstruction work, where the creature couldn’t cause any more mischief.