Young Jedi Knights 8 - Diversity Alliance Read online

  DIVERSITY ALLIANCE by KEviN J. ANDERSon and REBECCA MOESTA

  BOULEVARD BOOKS, NEW YORK

  To Steve Sansweet, a fellow Star Wars enthusiast from day one, for your friendship and for helping us keep our sense of humor

  acknowledgments

  Writing each volume of the Young Jedi Knights requires a lot of help from many different people Sue Rostoni, Allan Kausch, and Lucy Wilson at Lucasfilm Licensing; Ginjer Buchanan and Jessica Faust at Boulevard Books; A. C. Crispin for helping us create Raynar's parents; Lillie E. Mitchell, Catherine Ulatowski, Katie Tyree, and Angela Kato at WordFire, Inc.; and Jonathan Cowan, our first test-reader.

  A special thanks to all of the fans and devoted readers who have enjoyed this series so much and urged us to tell the further adventures of Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca. Your enthusiasm and support give us the energy we need to write these stories.

  THE RAGTAG GROUP of ships drifted through space, maintaining silence, broadcasting no telltale signal that could give away their location.

  This assortment of merchant vessels, scout cruisers, and security ships had been cobbled together over the course of two decades by the noble Thul family of Alder-aanto form a trading fleet. Since most of the family had been off-planet when Alder-aan was destroyed, the Thuls had moved to Coruscant, the commercial and governmental center of the galaxy. Through shrewd investments, they had built the remnants of their ancient wealth into Bornaryn Trading, a powerful galactic company with a steady flow of cargo and burgeoning business on countless routes.

  At the moment, though, the merchant fleet had no known destination.

  The vessels huddled close together in an empty space between the stars, keeping themselves safe. Security starfighters flitted protectively along the edges of the convoy, while the other craft clustered in the center like a school of nervous glim-merfish.

  On the Tradewyn, the flagship of the Bomaryn fleet, Aryn Dro Thul stood proudly on the observation deck. She wore a simple gown of midnight blue shot with silver that complemented her braided chestnut hair.

  A sash of scarlet, yellow, orange, and purple was tied loosely about her waist. Though slight of build, Aryn projected an air of dignity that often fooled those she met into thinking her a tall woman.

  As she stared through the main windowport, her intelligent blue eyes kept watch on the cargo vessels, fleet skimmers, security shuttles, and scout drones she and Bornan Thul had assembled for their business.

  Now, with the disappearance of her husband, all responsibility for Bornaryn Trading rested on her shoulders. Aryn turned to her brother-in-law, who stood beside her on the deck of the Tradewyn. Tyko Thul was a powerful merchant who had made his fortune in droid manufacturing. Though he was a calculating and sometimes pompous man, she was glad of his support during this time of crisis.

  "Is there any word yet on my husband?"

  Aryn asked. "A coded message perhaps?

  We must find some trace of him soon."

  Tyko scratched his short blond hair with one hand, and his shrewd hazel eyes narrowed in concentration. "No, Aryn--there's been no sign of Bornan. He has simply disappeared." A frown creased his round face, so deeply that furrows appeared in his rosy cheeks and his chin.

  "I don't know if this is a new kind of scam he's pulling, or what he hopes to gain . . . but I wish he'd make some sort of contact with us."

  Aryn paced the deck of the flagship, looking out the broad windowports at two of the heavily armed security starfighters dashing back and forth, crisscrossing the convoy perimeter to guard against external attack.

  "You're so skeptical, Tyko," she said. "I don't think it's anything of the sort. Bor nan's been kidnapped, or hurt . . . or even killed."

  Tyko shook his head. "I'm being skeptical?

  At least I'm thinking he might still be alive and all right. I know my brother, Aryn. He's probably run across something valuable and wants to keep it all for himself."

  "Not Bornan," Aryn said, her blue eyes flashing with anger.

  "I'm positive that someone has taken him, and I'm certain we're all in danger. The whole family."

  Tyko placed a fleshy hand on his sister-in-law's shoulder, squeezing it in a vain attempt to reassure her. "If I didn't believe you might be right, Aryn, I'd never have left Mechis III to be here with you. It's taken me a long time to get the droid manufacturing facilities up and running there again, you know. I think they're all fully functional now. That strange programming glitch Mechis III suffered during Imperial days has been completely purged from the system, so I suppose my assistants can handle it, for the moment."

  He gave her a small smile. "I'd rather be here with you and the fleet . . . where it's safe."

  Tyko went to a console to study their random flight path as one of the private security guards marched onto the observation deck. "Excuse me, Lady Aryn," the guard said, clearing his throat. "We've been at these coordinates for as long as we feel it's advisable."

  She sighed. "Thank you, Kusk. Time for another hyperspace jump, then?"

  Kusk nodded. "Yes, if you intend to keep the location of our fleet absolutely secret.

  We are currently at risk if we stay here."

  "Not just yet." Aryn turned to Tyko, folding her slender hands together. She pressed her pale lips into a grim line. Her husband had always said he could tell when she had made up her mind and did not intend to change it. "I feel uncomfortable knowing that my son Raynat is out in the open. Perhaps he is in danger."

  Tyko gave a .dismissive wave. "He's safe enough at the Jedi academy. Luke Sky-walker wouldn't dare let any harm come to him."

  "No one can protect my son better than I can," Aryn insisted.

  "I'm going to contact Yavin 4. I'll ask Raynar to come to our fleet, so we can all be together. I want him where I can see him, at least until this whole . . . situation is over."

  Tyko blew air between his generous lips and shook his head wearily. "Skywalker can protect him with the Force. I'm sure he's quite reliable."

  "Yes, he is," Aryn said. "That's why I'll request that the Jedi Master personally escorts Raynar safely to our fleet."

  · Tyko knew when to give up his objections.

  "All right," he said. "It'll be good to have the whole family together again."

  Aryn looked at him sternly. "The whole family won't be together again until my husband is found."

  "Oh yes. Yes, of course," Tyko said. "I forgot about that."

  Aryn turned to the security guard, who was still waiting patiently at the door to the observation deck. "Plot a new course, Kusk," she said, "and prepare to launch our fleet into hyperspace--but first establish a communications link to the Jedi academy. I need to speak directly with Master Luke Skywalker."

  After a hard day of studies, meditation, and training exercises, Jacen Solo left the Great Temple and went off into the dense jungle to be by himself.

  His sister Jaina and their Wookiee friend Lowbacca were busy working on the Rock Dragon, tinkering with the Hapan passenger cruiser's engines--not so much' because the ship needed the work, but because the two mechanically inclined young Jedi Knights enjoyed the tinkering.

  Tenel Ka, who technically owned the ship, preferred instead to be out running, doing her exercises, toning up her body and keeping her muscles at their peak performance. Ever since she had lost her arm in a lightsaber dueling accident, Tenel Ka had taken to swimming in the river as often as she could.

  Jacen loved to spend time with the warrior girl, but he couldn't keep up with her calisthenics. Instead, he preferred to go off into the jungle, because it gave him an opportunity to look for interes
ting plants or insects or animal specimens he could take back and keep in the small menagerie of pets he studied and then set free. Back in his quarters, in an incubator built' by Jaina, he also carefully nurtured the fertilized gort egg his father had given him.

  Soon, he thought, the precious egg would hatch, and he would have an unusual pet.

  For now, though, he walked through the underbrush in search of various colors of the polished button beetles. He had discovered a nearly intact nest under some broken rocks blasted from the Great Temple during the recent Shadow Academy attack, and he wanted to complete his collection of specimens.

  Instead, as he parted a stand of tall ferns and stepped into a clearing, Jacen saw another young Jedi trainee, Raynat, sitting alone on a rock. He found this quite unusual, since the young man usually avoided the jungles, preferring to remain inside more "civilized" areas. Raynar's brightly colored robes were as multihued and iridescent as an entire swarm of button beetles. He sat with his hands on his robed knees.

  Jacen grinned and waved. he'd been working harder at being friendly to Raynar since the boy's family problems had begun.

  "Hi, Raynar. What are you doing?"

  Raynar turned, startled by Jacen's arrival.

  "Nothing."

  Jacen laughed. "There's usually a lot more than nothing going on .when someone says 'nothing.'" "All right," Raynar said with a sigh.

  "I was meditating . . . using the Force to reach out with my mind. I thought maybe I could find out something about where my father went."

  "Still no word, then?" Jacen asked.

  Sadly, the blond-haired boy shook his head and stared down at his hands. Though New Republic Security Forces and the bounty hunter Boba Fett--and who knew how many others--were searching the galaxy for him, Bornan Thul had not been found.

  Jacen felt uncomfortable when someone else was in trouble or dejected and there was. nothing he could do about it. Although he often resorted to telling jokes, he knew this was probably not a good time to try that. "I wish there was something we could do to help," he said.

  "If I can think of something, I'll definitely ask you, then," Raynar answered, looking slightly relieved, though not too hopeful.

  He forced a smile. A small one . . .

  but it was a smile nevertheless.

  When Jacen and Raynar returned together to the Great Temple, the workers had just finished restoring part of the hangar bay that had collapsed during the Imperial attack. New Republic engineers had pitched in with the large-scale work, while military ships hovered in orbit over the jungle moon to protect against any further attacks from space.

  Arms crossed over his chest, Luke Sky-walker leaned against the Rock Dragon and watched Jacen and Raynar as they approached.

  Jaina and Lowbacca sat beside the repaired passenger shuttle.

  Jacen waved. "Hi, Uncle Luke."

  "I've got a message from Raynar's mother," Luke said.

  The boy from Alderaan instantly perked up and hurried over. "What is it?" Raynar asked. "Is there news?"

  "Not exactly," Luke said. "But she would like me to escort you to her fleet so you can be together during the search for your father.

  She thinks it's best for your. personal safety."

  "The fleet? Well, well, well . . ." Raynar frowned. "But how would I get there? If we're worried that someone will try to kidnap me as well as my father, I can't just " "I guess we could take you," Jacen said.

  "The Rock Dragon looks like a normal ship, so nobody would suspect anything."

  "Thanks for offering," Luke said, "but I'm afraid Raynar's mother was quite insistent: I have to escort him personally. The Shadow Chaser has quantum armor-to shield us from any attack, and I can help guard him with my jedi skills."

  "But what am I supposed to do when I get there?" the young man said, tugging at his colorful robes. "I need to continue my Jedi training and develop my skills. I can't be of any help to my father if I'm stuck in isolation with the fleet."

  "Hey, we could go along, Uncle Luke," Jacen suggested, still trying to find a way to help. "We'll work on our exercises together.

  Besides, Raynar needs friends with him right now."

  Raynat looked at Jacen skeptically, and then at the other young Jedi Knights. "You'd do that you'd all come along with me?"

  "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said.

  "Sure," Jaina said. "We haven't always

  been very friendly to you, but maybe this is a good time to change that."

  Lowie rumbled his enthusiastic endorsement of the plan.

  "I think that's a terrific idea," Luke said.

  "Good," Jaina answered, slamming an access hatch on the outside of the Rock Dragon and fastening it. "Then what are we waiting for?"

  Lowbacca growled a comment, and Jaina nodded. "The Rock Dragon's ready to go when the rest of you are."

  ON THE HELLISH world of Ryloth, half of the planet broiled under sunlight hot enough to soften rock, while the other side crackled with a cold so intense it would make a glacier shiver.

  The Twileks, the only sentient beings ever to make a long-term home there, had settled in the narrow band of shadow between daylight and darkness. In this twilight region, surface temperatures above ground remained hospitable enough to support life, but the Twi'leks preferred to build shelters by burrowing into the mountain ranges.

  They'd carved great warrens, cities beneath the ground, where their clan system had evolved into a complex male-dominated political structure that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.

  Until the Twi'lek woman Nolaa Tarkona had implemented sweeping changes through a swift wave of bloodshed.

  Forming the Diversity Alliance had been her key to freedom and power. She was the political movement's outspoken and charismatic leader, uniting downtrodden alien species that had suffered for so long under human domination.

  Now Nolaa held the deepest, most defensible chambers beneath the mountains, and had set up her headquarters there.

  After her rise to power, her followers had excavated an underground spaceport adjacent to the grotto that allowed her powerful allies direct access to Ryloth, and from there, out to the galaxy at large.

  The Twi'lek leader sat in her cool, expanded grotto, a throne room of sorts. She had a great deal of work to do. Managing a galaxy-wide political movement required constant effort, concentration, and vigilance.

  Here, deep underground, she had to rely on chronometers and assistants to tell her when it was time to stop working and begin the sleeping period. Of late, though, she had curtailed her rest hours.

  Plans she had set in motion continued to brew; their demands weighed heavily upon her, and she had far too many obligations to bother with sleep. If her revolution failed and she was killed, then she could sleep for all eternity.

  Nolaa sat comfortably in her stone chair, not allowing the seething thoughts and emotions inside to show though her facade of outward 'calm. In a sense, the rich red lighting in this room spoke for her.. It reflected the deep-seated anger and thirst for revenge that boiled in her heart, and the multitude of ideas for bringing about the ultimate triumph of the Diversity Alliance that whirled through her mind.

  She clacked her finger claws together, feeling their tough hardness, like the spines on the shell of a sidrek megapede. Nolaa could rip out the throat of any enemy or unsuspecting friend--with one sweep of her hands. Although she kept herself physically ready for combat, her primary arsenal consisted of the words she used to forge the emotions of crowds into weapons, turning her followers into a fighting force. Nolaa Tarkona had become good at getting her way.

  Hovrak, her wolfman Adjutant Advisor,

  marched into the room, his fetal eyes bright in the grotto dimness. Nolaa kept the reddish lights turned down, but her rose-quartz eyes focused well in the shadows.

  She could see that he bore a dispatch in his hairy paw.

  With his other hand Hovrak brushed down the dark brown fur that bristled on his face. He bared his teeth
in a gesture of respect and said, "Esteemed Tarkona, I have excellent news--dispatches from two more candidate worlds."

  "Good." Nolaa bowed her head, twitching her one remaining head-tail in satisfaction.

  The burned stump of the other jiggled in a reflex of long-remembered pain.

  Hovrak kept a long and detailed list on an electronic datapad, recording all known nonhuman species. It was his intent, and hers--to recruit members from each one of those species for the Diversity Alliance.

  "First off," the wolfman said, speaking in a sharp voice, as-if trying to bite off each word as it emerged from his mouth, "we have a pledge from a self-appointed United Council of Bith Musicians. They have sworn to play patriotic songs that espouse the goals of the Diversity Alliance while they tour the planets of the galaxy."