Shards of Alderaan

18

“I’m impressed, Em Teedee,” Jacen said, still marveling at the little droid’s audacity.

“Why, thank you, Master Jacen. It was nothing so remarkable, really.” Jacen was sure the little droid would have blushed had he been able to. “Oh—dear me! I seem to be picking up a broadband transmission from Slave IV, Boba Fett’s ship. It’s being sent on a wide range of frequencies.”

“Put it through our speakers,” Jaina ordered.

“Reception is rather weak, thanks to our damaged communications dish, but I’ll amplify as much as possible,” Em Teedee said. Jaina and Lowie worked together to boost the gain, their fingers flying over the control panels.

The ship’s speakers crackled with static. “… for Han Solo … emergency in Alderaan system. Jacen and Jaina need help … urgent. Come alone.”

The mood in the Rock Dragon’s cockpit instantly turned grim.

“I don’t get it,” Jacen said, feeling more trapped and anxious than he had earlier.

“Ah.” Tenel Ka nodded. “Aha. Your father will naturally come if he believes you to be in danger.”

Jacen clenched his fists, then looked down at his hands. “Why would Boba Fett think Dad could lead him to Bornan Thul?”

“Looks like Boba Fett knew that Dad and Bornan Thul were on the same trade commission,” Jaina said, scrolling through the data Em Teedee had downloaded from the bounty hunter’s ship. “Let’s see what else we can find out. Maybe if we learn who Boba Fett is working for, why he wants Bornan Thul so badly …”

Leaning over his sister’s shoulder, Jacen quickly skimmed the information that flashed across the screen. “Fett’s after something, all right. I just can’t tell what it is.”

“That fact is never specified,” Tenel Ka said.

“Seems like Raynar’s dad may be the key, though,” Jaina said. “Whoever posted the bounty seems to think Bornan Thul has—or at least knows where to find—whatever it is Boba Fett’s after.”

Lowie gave a soft rumble. “More than one what, Lowie?” Jaina said.

“Master Lowbacca believes that because Boba Fett has records tracking the movements of other searchers, it is likely that more than one bounty hunter was engaged to fulfill this assignment,” Em Teedee clarified. “According to one log entry, he has apparently already destroyed one such rival, a man named Moorlu.”

Jacen gave a low whistle. “Somebody must really want Raynar’s father.”

“Ah. Aha,” Tenel Ka said, pointing to a name on the screen. “There—Nolaa Tarkona. It would appear that she set the bounty. Interesting.” Jacen knew Tenel Ka expected this to mean something to him, but he had no idea what she was getting at. He gave her a blank look.

Tenel Ka raised her eyebrows. “Recall what your father told Raynar. Bornan Thul was on his way to a trade conference when he disappeared. At the conference, he was scheduled to meet with Nolaa Tarkona, a Twi’lek woman—one of the few females of that species ever to rise to political prominence. My experience with assassins and conspiracies indicates this connection is not entirely coincidental.”

“Seems awfully complicated,” Jacen said. “Dad’s in trouble. Raynar’s father is in trouble. We’re in trouble….”

“At least now we know something about the trouble we’re in,” Jaina said. “Thanks to this information. Excellent work, Era Teedee.”

“Why, that’s very kind of you, Mistress Jaina,” the translating droid said. “But the credit actually belongs to you and Master Lowbacca for enhancing my emergency response subroutines. I simply—”

“Speaking of emergency response,” Jaina broke in, “we’d better all get back to digging ourselves out of this mess before Dad falls into the trap Boba Fett is setting for him.”

Jacen nodded. He didn’t mind his sister’s taking charge in a crisis. He knew Jaina didn’t do it to show off—she took the lead because someone had to, and it usually just worked out that way. Jaina thought faster and felt more comfortable issuing orders than he did.

“Em Teedee, try to send a message to warn Dad away from Boba Fett’s ambush. I know the signal’s weak, but do whatever you can to boost it until I can get another transmitter dish rigged.”

“I’ll use every resource at my disposal, Mistress Jaina,” Em Teedee said. “You may rely on me to do everything within my power to see that—”

“Good,” Jaina cut in. “Get right on it. Lowie and I will work on the antenna dish and get the ship ready to fly again—if we can. Jacen, you and Tenel Ka go outside and see if you can get enough of that blockage cleared so we can fly the Rock Dragon out of here. Moving a little mountain of rock shouldn’t be too hard if you two work together.”

Jacen groaned, but Tenel Ka gripped his shoulder. “We will do whatever is necessary to get the job done. If Boba Fett believes us to be permanently trapped, I will be pleased to prove him wrong.”

“He probably doesn’t know we can use the Force,” Jacen pointed out. “It won’t be much harder for us than helping Uncle Luke clear rubble at the Great Temple. Of course, we won’t have all the other Jedi students to help….”

“We will clear the way,” Tenel Ka said confidently. “Our muscles can do much of the work. The Force will do the rest.”

Jacen and Tenel Ka hastily put on their breathing masks and tough, flexible gloves. Full of determination, they stepped out into the thin, cold atmosphere of the darkened cave. But when they turned on their glowrods and approached the mounded blockage, Jacen’s spirits fell. The central core of the debris where Boba Fett had fired his blaster to reseal the cave was fused into a solid rocky mass.

“Uh-oh,” he said.

Tenel Ka gestured with her glowrod to the side of the cave-in, where the rock had fallen in easily manageable chunks and pebbles. Jacen moved over to the pile and experimentally hefted a chunk of rock twice the size of his head. In the low gravity, it seemed to weigh no more than a gort-feather pillow. Tenel Ka picked up a similar-sized rock with her one hand and tossed it aside with no problem.

Next they experimented with using the Force to nudge aside larger pieces of rock while shoving away mounds of loose pebbles with their gloved hands. Though the air in the cave was as frigid as a night on Hoth, they both soon worked up a sweat.

Jacen grinned at Tenel Ka, feeling a bit silly for enjoying himself so much—but he did like to work with the warrior girl from Dathomir. He found it inexplicably satisfying to be struggling with his friends to solve a problem. They would get themselves out of this mess—he had no doubt of that.

Jacen even started trying to concoct a joke: How many Jedi does it take to clear an asteroid cave-in? He might have to wait until after they got back home, he supposed, to find the right punch line.

When they had opened an area a meter deep beside the fused stone core, Tenel Ka climbed atop the rubble and withdrew her rancor-tooth lightsaber. Then, igniting the brilliant turquoise blade, she used it like a battle-ax to hack off a massive wedge of rock. Jacen caught the slab with the Force and diverted it quickly to one side while Tenel Ka sliced off another wedge, as if she were manipulating a machete to chop her way through a dense jungle.

She gave Jacen an approving nod, and he knew he had been right: they would get out of this just fine.

“Thanks, Lowie,” Jaina said, accepting the mangled wreckage of what had once been their transmitter dish. The Wookiee had just dismantled it from the battered roof of the Rock Dragon, then hauled it inside the cockpit where Jaina could work on it. Parts of the dish were missing entirely, pulverized in the avalanche, but more than half of the contraption had survived—in some form. Fixing it would be the difficult part.

“I’ll see what I can do with this. Navigation systems, life support, and hyperdrive all checked out fine. I think I’ve got the engine fixed again. Can you run a diagnostic on all our exhaust ports and make sure they’re not clogged with debris?”

Lowie roared his agreement. “Please be careful, Master Lowbacca,” Em Teedee called from the control console. “Did you know that twenty-one percent of all spaceport accidents occur while attempting to clear blockage to exhaust ports?”

Lowie grumbled reassuringly and headed toward the rear of the ship.

Kneeling down, Jaina ran a grim eye over the twisted remains of the Rock Dragon’s transmitter dish. “I’m not even sure there’s enough here left to salvage.” She sighed.

“Perhaps you might consider fashioning a smaller transmitter from the remains of the old one,” Em Teedee said.

Jaina bit her lower lip and looked dubiously at the mangled components. “I’m pretty sure I can do that,” she said. “The question is, will it still be strong enough to send a signal? We have to warn Dad about the ambush.”

“I have the utmost confidence in your abilities, Mistress Jaina,” Em Teedee said encouragingly.

“Yeah?” Jaina sighed again. “Well, then, don’t complain if I have to disassemble you for spare parts.”

“I should hope that I could be of greater use to you as one complete unit,” the little droid said. “Actually, because my own modest transmitter is fully integrated, I doubt—”

“That’s it!” Jaina said, slapping her palm to her forehead. “The modular transmitter Dad brought me. It’s old, but I just may be able to rig something.” She grinned at Em Teedee. “Don’t worry, Quicksilver, your parts are safe. I knew we kept you around for a good reason.”