Trouble on Cloud City

5

With a swirl of his colorful cape, Lando Calrissian went off to file a formal complaint and request an official investigation into Cojahn’s death from Cloud City Security. He still had a network of friends and political connections from his days as Baron-Administrator.

Meanwhile, the young Jedi Knights found their way to a high observation platform, an open atmospheric patio on the upper ring of Kerros Tower. Here at the top of the immense metropolis in the sky, they were buffeted by winds. The temperatures varied: cool and warm breezes swirled as updrafts caught around the structure, carrying snatches of vapors from the cloud depths below.

Off at a distance in the clouds, they could see steaming Tibanna gas refineries and drifting storage cylinders. Anja lounged back on a chair, propped up one knee, and studiously ignored both the sights and the glitz.

The Tourism Board of Cloud City had issued restrictions and setback limitations for the chemical processing and industrial facilities. Since rich patrons frequently came from halfway across the galaxy to relax and spend their vacations on Bespin, the Board required that all smelly and noisy activities remain far enough away so as not to spoil the view.

The sun stole below the far horizon as the planet’s rotation carried them toward nightfall. Far beneath the patio platform the soup of clouds turned pink and orange with the sheen of phosphorescent microorganisms.

Bespin spun so fast on its axis that each day was only twelve standard hours long. Jacen estimated that he would need to sleep only every other night, and a small part of the day. Visitors to Cloud City found that such a schedule kept the place bustling, frantic, and awake at all hours.

Jacen pointed down to the colorful clouds, nudging Tenel Ka beside him. “Those colors are caused by microspheres of airborne algae,” he said. “They live on the little droplets of water vapor and other trace chemicals that boil up from below. It’s like a forest of sky plankton down there.”

“Ah. Aha,” she said, but made no other comment.

“I thought you wanted to talk about this supposed foul play in Cojahn’s death,” Anja said. “As if we have any chance of solving it.”

“With such a negative attitude, why even start?” Zekk frowned at her. “I’m surprised you have so little faith in your own abilities, Anja.”

She scowled back at the dark-haired boy. “It’s not my abilities I doubt.” She turned away and stared off into the clouds.

Suddenly, light burst from all sides of Cloud City, colorful beacons that swirled and played out across the sky. Distant music hummed from speakers set into the hover-scaffolding at the edges of the metropolis.

“What’s going on?” Jaina asked.

“A show, I think,” Jacen said. Tenel Ka leaned forward to watch.

To the sounds of muffled cheers from all up and down the sides of the huge levitating city, a group of creatures arrowed out of one of the broad docking bays with a flutter of wings. The snub-nosed, bullet-shaped creatures flapped their broad wings like giant fish swimming gracefully under thick water. They had no feathers, only gray leathery skin, like sails stretched tight over flexible cartilage and a network of thin bones. Except for the rushing of air, the beasts made no sound in their flight.

“Hey, those are thrantas!” Jacen cried. He turned to Jaina. “We’ve seen holos of them. Remember some of the images Mom has? Thrantas were actually native to Alderaan, but someone brought them here many years ago to use as beasts of burden at the gas refineries and for constructing the floating cities.” He nodded toward the cluster of swooping batlike creatures that circled, dove, and flew in formation.

“Since Alderaan was destroyed, those are probably the last ones in existence,” Jaina pointed out.

“Only because Alderaan never made any attempt to defend itself,” Anja muttered. “Your Luke Skywalker proved that the Death Star wasn’t quite as unconquerable as the Empire thought.”

The thrantas circled back toward the dazzling lights of Cloud City, diving through the brightly colored beams as if they formed a glowing waterfall. As the thrantas looped around, preparing to head back out to the open sky, many small figures dropped off a launching ramp from the sides of the white metropolis.

Lowie growled in surprise. “People are jumping!” Jaina cried. “Out into open air!”

“Wait. They seem to know what they’re doing,” Zekk pointed out. “Watch. I think it’s part of the show.”

Jacen’s eyes gleamed. “They’re thranta riders!”

Smooth-skinned lanky humanoids dove from their precarious perches, somersaulting into the open sky without a care. Jacen could see that their exposed skin was painted with whorls of color, in black and red, yellow and green. The humanoids fell and tumbled without fear … and each thranta nosed out and dove toward a particular rider, moving in a beautifully choreographed dance.

Flapping sail-like wings, the thrantas swooped beneath the tumbling, dropping humanoids. The thranta riders completed their aerial acrobatics and each one of them landed perfectly in position on a small harness on a thranta’s back. With a resonant sound muffled by distance and the vastness of the giant floating city, spectators applauded and cheered the show.

“They must be training for their sky rodeo,” Jacen said. “I’ve read about them. Once a month they perform here on Cloud City in what has to be the most terrific exhibition in this spiral arm. Amazing creatures—and the riders, too.”

Several of the thranta riders now stood on the slippery backs of their beasts, holding their hands up. The squadron of thrantas swooped around each other in figure eights and swirled about like a swarm of maddened insects. In a silent, perfectly executed motion, the standing thranta riders leapt off the backs of their own creatures and landed on other ones. The riders switched mounts without a single mistake, without so much as slip. Every movement was beautiful and precise, like patterns in a kaleidoscope.

“If this is practice,” Jaina said, “can you imagine what the real show is like?”

“Maybe Cojahn was hoping to become a thranta rider,” Anja suggested sarcastically. “He jumped off…but missed. Should’ve practiced more in the simulation chambers, I guess.”

“That is an interesting hypothesis,” Tenel Ka replied, surprising Anja.

Zekk nodded. “Maybe we should at least talk to some of those thranta riders, find out if they saw something….”

Jaina sat up as cool dusk wind blew her straight brown hair around her face. “Ought to talk to the people at the SkyCenter construction site, too. Maybe the Ugnaught shift boss who got fired, if we can find him, and anyone else Cojahn had contact with.”

Zekk nodded. “We’ve got a lot of leads to follow, but at least Cloud City isn’t as big as a planet. How many places can there be to look?”

Anja stood up in disgust, putting her hands on her hips. Her piranha beetle tattoo stood out on her upper right arm. “We’ll never find anything even if we look. The explanation is pretty clear; it’s right in front of us. Lando just doesn’t want to admit that it could have been a suicide or even a simple accident.”

“And maybe it wasn’t,” Jacen said. “It’s up to us to find out.” He gave her a wry grin. “And believe me, we’ve solved greater puzzles than this before.”

“Right,” Jaina said. “So what are we waiting for?”