Trouble on Cloud City

16

Flanked by a stoic Lowbacca and a disturbed but aloof-looking Anja, Tenel Ka waited for the Lady Luck to cruise back into the docking port on Cloud City. Feeling her stomach muscles knot, she closed her burning eyes and tried to face down the fear inside.

The prospect of doing this, of telling Jaina Solo that her brother had been killed, was more frightening than any battle or other ordeal Tenel Ka’s Jedi training had put her through.

The warrior girl’s throat was tight. Though she and Lowie had almost died in the same assassination attempt, she still felt there must have been something more she could have done to keep her friend Jacen alive. She was a Jedi! But she had failed him.

Another more subtle failure haunted her as well. Tenel Ka had always believed that the connection between her and Jacen was so close, so strong, that she would be able to sense if any harm came to him. She should have felt it through the Force the instant he died—but she hadn’t. Instead, her emotions had betrayed her, taunted her with the hope that Jacen had survived somehow. She even imagined she’d heard his voice calling out to her in her mind. But she had been delirious at the time, in shock from loss of blood. The Cloud City medics had been able to heal the wounds on her arm, but not the ones in her soul. Fleeting thoughts tormented her even now, daring her to believe that Jacen was still alive.

Lowbacca fidgeted beside her, his dark lips drawn down in a frown. Em Teedee, silent for once, had dimmed his optical sensors in a gesture of respect. Anja’s pale face looked pinched and she avoided eye contact with the others. Tenel Ka could sense tendrils of pain and sorrow floating like a tangible mist all around them. It was so difficult to face this truth.

Jacen was gone.

Lando’s polished space yacht followed floor guidance lights as it landed on the platform. Tenel Ka’s cool gray eyes filled with tears and she took one step forward to face the ship. Lowbacca put a strong, hairy hand on Tenel Ka’s bare shoulder. Anja moved back to stand alone behind them. Em Teedee hung silent and unmoving on Lowie’s syren-fiber belt.

The Lady Luck settled in and landing clamps locked it down. Tenel Ka steeled herself for the fresh grief her news would bring. But just moments after the space yacht’s landing ramp descended, a door on the other side of the docking bay whooshed opened. Tenel Ka turned, unable to believe what she saw with her own granite-gray eyes.

Jacen himself entered the bay, looking bedraggled and dirty, but perfectly healthy. He grinned a weary, lopsided grin.

“Jacen Solo!” Tenel Ka cried. “Jacen, my friend!” She bounded toward him, moving even faster than the Wookiee’s long legs could carry him. When Tenel Ka fairly tackled Jacen, throwing her arm around him in a joyous embrace, he was nearly as astonished as the warrior girl.

He hugged her back, laughing. “Wow! That was almost worth falling for.”

Lowbacca swept both of them together into a massive Wookiee hug. Jacen spat ginger fur out of his mouth. “Okay, okay! I’m all right, you big walking carpet! At least I was fine until I got into this pileup here.”

“But how, Jacen, my friend? What happened? How are you alive? How did you get back here?” Tenel Ka asked in a rush.

Lowie roared his own barrage of questions, and Em Teedee added in a scolding tone, “Master Jacen, you gave us all such a fright. It was really terribly inconsiderate of you.”

“Thanks, Em Teedee. I’m glad to see you, too,” Jacen said. “I’ll try not to do it again.”

Lando, Jaina, and Zekk emerged from the Lady Luck, blinking in surprise as the other young Jedi Knights remained clustered around Jacen instead of greeting them upon their return from Clak’dor VII.

“Hey, did I miss something here?” Lando said.

Em Teedee answered for them all, speaking loudly in his tinny voice. “You certainly did, Master Calrissian. And you don’t know the half of it.”

Anja came up to Jacen, trembling. He could see the relief in her eyes, which she tried to cover up with a bland imperturbable smile. “Now, this is one story I’ve got to hear,” she said. “Don’t tell me Jedi Knights can fly now?”

Jaina and Zekk ran to join their friends as Lando sealed his space yacht behind them. “Wild trip. We got a lot of information,” Jaina said. “Found out what’s going on here in Cloud City.”

“Ah, we found out a few more things, too,” Jacen said. “And I discovered exactly what happened to Cojahn on that balcony.”

Tenel Ka couldn’t cover her gasp of surprise. Lowie growled. Lando’s interest was obviously piqued. “Looks like we’ve all got some talking to do.”

Anja seemed unaccountably disturbed. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Jacen a shaky smile. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“Hey, never underestimate a Jedi,” he said.

As they sat together sipping hot broth drinks in a quiet cantina that overlooked the thranta practice for the upcoming sky rodeo, they all shared their separate stories.

Lando, Jaina, and Zekk recounted what they had learned from Figrin D’an and his band about how Black Sun was trying to infiltrate the workings of Cloud City. Tenel Ka, with additions from Lowie, told of the assassin attack after they had followed the fired Ugnaught construction boss, while Jacen described his rescue by M’kim the thranta rider, and how M’kim had seen a visored man with algae-green hair murder Cojahn… an angry, ruthless man who was almost certainly Czethros himself.

“But you can’t prove it’s Czethros,” Anja said. “It’s a big galaxy. There are plenty of other people with moss-green hair.”

“And the laser visor?” Jaina asked skeptically.

“Certainly not enough evidence to convict anyone,” Anja said firmly. “I prefer solid proof myself, instead of hearsay from an ‘eyewitness’ who was flying around with the setting sun in his eyes. If M’kim was so close that he could make out the facial features of the person who allegedly boosted Cojahn over the side of the balcony, how come he wasn’t close enough to catch the man as he fell?”

“I already explained that,” Jacen said. “There were storms—”

Lando raised a hand for peace. “It’s easy enough to determine whether or not Czethros was here. I still have my old Baron-Administrator access codes. Let’s just find a nice quiet business area, and we can check Cloud City’s central computer banks. Lowie, I think you might help me with that.”

The young Wookiee chuffed in agreement and nodded his shaggy head.

“We can check the records. Everyone coming in or out of Cloud City has to leave some sort of passport information. Docking records, passenger manifests, tariff documents. It’ll be quite a search….”

“Czethros is kind of hard to miss,” Zekk said.

Lowie stood up from the table, his ginger fur bristling, the dark streak prominent on his forehead. Em Teedee said, “If I can be of any help, I would most gladly offer the assistance of my circuits.”

“Thanks, Em Teedee,” Lando said. “Let’s see what Lowbacca can find first.”

As the other young Jedi Knights gathered around the computer terminals, Lowie bounced through the public records databases, scanning for the name Czethros. The search ultimately turned up nothing.

“See, he never came here,” Anja said. “Your thranta rider made a mistake.”

“I thought you told us we were gullible,” Zekk answered. “Any man who’s got that many connections and is involved in illegal activities would know how to hide his tracks.”

Next, Lowie looked through docking records, credit receipts, list of purchases made and transmissions sent. It was a monumental task and required all of the Wookiee’s concentration as well as the full access given to him by Lando’s high-level security codes.

“Sure glad you were Baron-Administrator,” Jaina said. “We would’ve hit a dead end right away if you hadn’t opened some of those passworded files.”

“We may still hit a dead end,” Lando said. “Just a lot farther along the way.”

Anja watched, arms crossed over her chest, still skeptical. She had so obviously been relieved, even overjoyed, to see that Jacen still lived…. Now, perhaps out of embarrassment, she hid behind a haughty mask.

Lowie’s golden eyes narrowed in suspicion as he stared at the images that flickered by from docking bay holocams. He plugged Em Teedee in to help him monitor the data. Some of the video snapshots stuttered and wavered. Em Teedee suddenly blurted in a shrill voice, “Oh dear, these images have been tampered with! I’m detecting skillful erasures and fine video cuts. Most sophisticated.”

Lando watched as Lowie worked furiously, his long fingers tapping the controls. He growled something, and Em Teedee said, “Master Lowbacca is attempting to move beyond the obvious. If someone has assisted in covering up the arrival of Czethros, they most likely have sanitized recordings from the docking bay… but they may have overlooked other holocams….”

Images flowed by in a rapid blur. Jaina peered over Lowie’s shoulder. Everyone intently studied the screen. Finally, Lowie growled in triumph.

“There! I see it, too!” Jaina said an instant later.

“That’s him,” Jacen agreed. “Good old respectable Czethros.”

An external holocam from one of the Port Town gambling casinos had managed to catch the image of a tall man with moss-green hair and a narrow silver laser visor; the man emerged from a docking port and ducked into the shadows between buildings, trying to lose himself in the crowd.

“He couldn’t clean up everything,” Lando said.

Lowie froze the image and enlarged it.

“Now do you have any doubts?” Zekk asked Anja. She avoided his gaze as he continued. “Any man who intentionally removes all record of his presence here has got something to hide.”

“It doesn’t mean he murdered anybody,” Anja said.

Jacen looked at her in surprise. “Maybe not. But he was here at exactly the right time, in secret, and tried to erase all evidence of his presence from Cloud City records. We know that a criminal organization has been blackmailing and threatening professionals here on Bespin—a criminal organization that has ties to Ord Mantell, where Czethros lives. And we also have an eyewitness who says he saw Czethros throw Cojahn off the balcony. How much more proof do you want?”

Tenel Ka nodded grimly. “Do you believe Czethros is involved with Black Sun criminal activities?”

Lando frowned. “More than that, I’m afraid. From his background and from what I’ve seen here, I think Czethros may well be one of the key figures behind Black Sun. Worse yet,” he added, “the fact that all these records and images have been doctored tells me that he must have some pretty important people in Cloud City’s administration under his thumb.”

“Figrin said Cojahn had tried to report the danger to the authorities, but they never did anything about it,” Zekk pointed out.

“We’ve got to report this,” Jaina said in a determined voice. “But this time to someone who’ll take it seriously. If Black Sun is on the prowl again, we’ve got to do something before they get too powerful to stop.”

Nobody noticed how Anja jumped when she heard Jaina’s words.

With the doorlock cyber-sealed, Anja retrieved the meager luggage she had brought from the Jedi academy. She rummaged in the bottom of her case, popped out the false bottom, and removed the high-power small transmitter screen that she used only in emergencies. When the screen wasn’t switched on, it looked like a portable mirror. But it was much more. Moving her fingers along the edges of the frame, she depressed buttons, entering a code and sending her signal. She tossed her long, honey-streaked hair behind her, feeling sweat prickle her scalp.

Oh, how she needed a dose of spice right now. She had to have one… but the need wasn’t any greater than it had been all day. Anja just didn’t know how long she could tolerate this pressure. Her personal supply was nearly gone, and she didn’t know what she would do—unless Czethros came through for her. She hated to depend on him.

The secret crime lord followed his own paths, busy setting up his own game. In the past, though, he had spent an incredible amount of time with her on Ord Mantell, taking her under his wing, training her in the ways of making a profit at the expense of less-vigilant people.

Anja had connected with him in the first place because of a shared hatred for Han Solo. Czethros had helped her arrange the fateful meeting with him and the attempted ambushes on Anobis, but Han Solo had survived it all. Then, Solo’s own children had adopted her as their friend.

At first she had gone along, pretending. Anja had been most eager to do whatever she could to hurt Han Solo for his despicable crime—for shooting her father Gallandro in the back. Even though Han Solo denied it, Anja knew the truth. Czethros had told her what had really happened.

After an interminable silence and a transmission delay, the mirror finally clouded, and the face of Czethros appeared. The laser-red dot of his optical sensor beamed through the visor that covered his face. His moss-green hair seemed distorted, discolored by the numerous scrambling and descrambling routines buried in his signal.

“Ahh, my little velker,” he said. “You must still be on Cloud City. By now I’m sure you’ve learned of the tragedy that has befallen your young Jedi friends.”

“Tragedy?” Anja said with a frown of distaste. “So, you did set that up.”

“Of course,” Czethros said. He looked down at his fingertips, then back up again, smiling at her.

“Well, they’re not dead,” she said in a flat voice. “None of them.”

Alarmed, Czethros drew back. “But I’ve already had a report from my operatives. At least three of those meddling kids were thrown down an exhaust chute and dumped out into the open skies of Bespin.”

“Is that the best you could do?” Anja chided. “I’ve told you before, they’re resourceful and strong,” She was amused by his obvious surprise. “They’ve been trained by the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker himself, and they’ve been through a lot worse than falling down a hole.”

Czethros snarled. Anja took a new tack, scowling back at him. “How could you send a bunch of hired assassins to kill a few teenagers? Even for you, isn’t that a bit”—she searched for the right word—“cowardly?”

Czethros raised his eyebrows above the visor, and the red laser eye flashed back and forth in agitation. “Do I detect compassion for the Solos in your voice, Anja Gallandro? I must not have trained you well enough. You were a predator, as ruthless as the velkers on Bespin. And now you’re feeling sorry for the children of the man who killed your father?” He laughed out loud. “Do you realize how ridiculous that is?”

Anja bit back a reply, not sure exactly how she felt. Jacen had been so friendly toward her. Jaina had accepted her. And even their friends considered her part of the group. She’d never felt this way before. She’d always been bitter about her life, holding on by her fingernails, fighting for every little advantage she managed to get. Never before had Anja felt the slightest bit sentimental.

Czethros leaned closer, his face growing larger on the mirror-screen. “Have you changed your mind? Don’t you want Solo’s children killed? Perhaps you’d like me to send some flowers to Han Solo himself?”

Anja felt torn. After what Solo had done to her father, she’d spent her life trying to get even with him. He deserved to be hurt. But when she had believed Jacen Solo was dead, it had twisted her insides. The pain had been unbearable.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Czethros said. “Even if you did change your mind I doubt I could stop my plans now. Everything is set. Soon I will send my signal, and Black Sun will appear everywhere, simultaneously taking over key installations and assuming key positions. Then the galaxy will run smoothly for us.

“My operatives are in place. They received orders days ago to eliminate Jacen and Jaina Solo and their friends, as well as Lando Calrissian. I can’t afford to let anyone find out too much about how we’ve been working our way through the bureaucratic levels of Cloud City. Bespin will be ours, as will Kessel, Mon Calamari, Ord Mantell, Borgo Prime, and every other important installation. Even Coruscant will feel our strength.”

Anja swallowed hard and forced herself to change the subject. “I’m … almost out of spice,” she said. “You promised me more, and I’ve done everything you asked.”

“Yes, yes,” he said, brushing aside her comment. “I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”

“When?” she said. Her lips trembled. Her eyes stung. She hated to beg.

Czethros looked at her and smiled faintly. “It’s on my schedule. Don’t worry your pretty head, my little velker. Now get back to your work. I have details to attend to. My killers are professionals, who always carry out their orders. Just stay clear of Lando Calrissian and the Solo kids, and you’ll be safe.”

Czethros switched off the flat screen from his end, and it became a mirror again in Anja’s hands. She stared at the polished surface for a long time, seeing only her own reflection … and Anja did not like what she saw there.