Trouble on Cloud City

20

Together again on Cloud City, the young Jedi Knights, Anja, and Lando, though exhausted and ragged from their ordeals, waited for the big show to begin. They sat on a set of open-air scaffoldings, now converted into spectator seats. The gentle winds ruffled Jaina’s straight brown hair and she blinked into the bright rising sun as Bespin’s twelve-hour day began again.

They had found prime observation spots on the hover-scaffolding that had originally been erected for polishing and replating parts of the city’s external hull. Lowie had climbed to the highest level and dangled his hairy feet down as he held on with one lanky arm. He seemed not the least bit bothered by his precarious position, high above nothing.

“Master Lowbacca, do be careful,” Em Teedee scolded, but the Wookiee paid him little heed.

Lando reached over and tousled Jacen’s curly hair. “Why is it that every time I try to take a simple vacation with you kids, something disastrous happens?”

“I have a feeling we just draw adventure to ourselves,” Jacen replied.

“A genuine vacation would be nice one of these days,” Jaina said. “But since we’re trying to be real Jedi Knights, I don’t suppose there’ll ever be a time when the New Republic doesn’t need us.”

Anja sat off to one side, withdrawn and quiet, threading her fingers through her honey-streaked hair. Something was obviously bothering her … but then again, Jaina had rarely seen the older girl be anything other than bothered. She wondered if Anja was more shaken by their recent adventures than she dared to admit.

“I’m proud of all of you, you know,” Lando said. “None of what we did can bring Cojahn back to me or his family, but I do know that we’ve all done a good thing. I told his wife about what really happened to him and she seemed comforted to know we found out the truth. We’ve exposed a dangerous criminal element. Black Sun is on the move again.”

“Yes,” Jaina said, frowning. “We’ll have to call Mom and give her all the information we have.”

“I’m sure the Chief of State of the New Republic can set a few law enforcement wheels in motion,” Zekk agreed.

Tenel Ka nodded firmly. “We must be certain they are not traitorous security forces, like some of the Wing Guard here on Cloud City.”

“This would never have happened when I was Baron-Administrator. I guess you just can’t find good help these days.” Lando shook his head. “Meantime, I’ll just have to be content with helping to expose some of the tainted Exex and Wing Guard members, and a few key people in the Merchants Guild and other politicians. This conspiracy runs deep.”

With what they had learned from the thranta rider and Figrin D’an, and everything Lowie had pulled from Cloud City computer archives, they had a fair idea of just how far-reaching the plans of Czethros were. He had influence on many types of gambling, smuggling, and strong-arm operations.

Jaina suspected, though, that they had only begun to uncover the depths of the insidious schemes of Black Sun. They had sent out an alert, and New Republic forces planned to apprehend Czethros immediately—but Jaina knew that the supposedly respectable businessman from Ord Mantell must have spies and information sources everywhere, and realized that Czethros might already be gone … one step ahead of them.

As morning sunlight spilled across the lower cloud banks, painting them with a golden glow, Jaina heard a loud musical fanfare from the outwardly directed speakers mounted on the scaffolding and on launching platforms.

“It’s starting!” Jacen said, scooting closer to Tenel Ka.

“I look forward to the performance with great enthusiasm,” Tenel Ka said in a neutral voice. The barest hint of a smile quirked one corner of her mouth.

With silent, flapping wings, a swarm of thrantas burst out, streaked away from Cloud City, and circled in the clouds. The skirling music rose and fell in a hauntingly beautiful melody. The thrantas looped about, dancing a sky ballet in time to the notes. The tattoos and body paintings on the cloud riders were so bright, they dazzled like rainbows as the thrantas whirled through the air.

Two of the performers unfurled a brilliant fluttering ribbon, tossing it from one rider to another, hurling the fabric ever higher to weave a colorful pattern like a cat’s cradle in the sky. All the thrantas continued to fly in perfect formation, the cloud riders holding on to their corners of the long ribbon.

Then a second troupe of thrantas launched themselves from their docks on Cloud City, flitting ahead of and around the colorful ribbon structure in the sky. They swarmed through openings and loops in the fabric-mesh, flying so close that their wing tips almost, almost touched the fluttering banner. But Jaina saw no mistakes, no slipups.

Then, at an unspoken signal, the cloud riders exchanged positions, shifting the pattern of the woven ribbon, reshaping it like a bright laser-light design in the sky.

Jacen stood up, hooting, applauding, and yelling at the top of his lungs. The second squadron of cloud riders broke free and darted back toward Cloud City. Jaina watched in amazement as one of them stripped out of formation and buzzed past the hover-scaffolding where they all sat. A thin young rider waved a broad hand and grinned from the back of his thranta.

“That’s M’kim!” Jacen shouted, waving.

Directly in front of them, the barefooted rider did a backward somersault in the air and landed effortlessly on the flying creature’s back. The thranta streaked off to rejoin the rest of the performing group.

“It looks like they’re letting him be an official part of the troupe at last,” Jacen said. “He’s finished his training.”

Tenel Ka nodded, a contented look on her serious face. “Training must end eventually, and then the real work begins.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t always learn something new,” Zekk added.

Lando, still watching the sky rodeo, turned back to the young Jedi Knights. “Speaking of which, it’s about time I got you all back to Yavin 4.”