Heirs of the Force Read online

  HEIRS OF THE FORCE

  by

  Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta

  As he did every morning before going to Uncle Luke's lessons, Jacen fed

  and took stock of all the bizarre and exotic creatures he had collected

  out in the unexplored jungles on Yavin 4. He liked to gather new pets.

  The far wall was stacked with bins and cages, transparent display cages

  and bubbling aquariums. Many of the containers were ingenious

  contraptions invented by his mechanically inclined sister. He

  appreciated Jaina's inventions, though he couldn't understand why she

  was more interested in the cages themselves than the creatures they

  contained.

  One cage rattled with two clamoring stintarils, tree-dwelling rodents

  with protruding eyes and long jaws filled with sharp teeth.

  Stintarils would swarm across the arboreal highways, never slowing down,

  eating anything that sat still long enough for them to take a bite.

  Jacen had had a fun time catching these two.

  In a damp, transparent enclosure tiny swimming crabs used sticky mud to

  build complex nests with small towers and curving battlements. In a

  rounded water bowl pinkish mucous salamanders swam formlessly, diluted

  and without shape, until they crawled out onto a perching shelf; then

  they hardened their outer membranes to a soft jellylike form with

  pseudopods and a mouth, allowing them to hunt among the insects in the

  weeds.

  In another cage strung with thick, tough wires, iridescent blue

  piranha-beetles crawled around with clacking jaws, constantly trying to

  chew their way free. Out in the jungle a wild swarm of piranha-beetles

  could descend with a thin deadly whine. When they set upon their prey,

  the beetles could turn a large animal to gnawed bones in minutes. Jacen

  was proud to have the only specimens in captivity in his menagerie.

  Often Jacen's most difficult job was not keeping the exotic pets caged

  but figuring out what they ate. Sometimes they fed on fruit or flowers.

  Sometimes they devoured fresh meat chunks. Sometimes the larger ones

  even broke free of their confinement and ate the other specimens-much to

  Jacen's dismay.

  Unlike Jacen and Jaina's strict tutors at home on the city-covered

  planet Coruscant, Luke Skywalker did not depend on a rigorous course of

  studies. To be a Jedi, Uncle Luke explained, one had to understand many

  pieces of the whole tapestry of the galaxy, not just a rigid pattern set

  by other people.

  So Jacen was allowed to spend much of his free time tromping through the

  dense underbrush, pushing jungle weeds and flowers out of the way,

  collecting beautiful insects, scooping up rare and unusual fungi. He

  had always had a strange and deep affinity for living creatures, much as

  his sister had a talent for understanding machinery and gadgets. He

  could coax the animals with his special Force talent, getting them to

  come right up to him, where he could study them at his leisure.

  Some of the Jedi students-especially spoiled and troublesome Raynar-were

  not pleased about the small zoo Jacen kept in his room. But Jacen

  studied the creatures, and took care of them, and learned much from the

  animals.

  From a small cistern Jaina had installed in the wall, Jacen ladled cool

  water into trays inside the cages. His motion disturbed a family of

  purple jumping spiders so that they hopped and bounced against the

  netting of the cage roof.

  He ran his fingers along the thin wires and whispered to them. "Calm

  down. It's all right." The spiders stopped their antics and settled

  down to drink through their long, hollow fangs.

  In another cage, the whisper birds had fallen silent, possibly hungry.

  Jacen would have to collect some fresh nectar funnels from the vines

  growing in the stones of the crumbling temple across the river.

  It was almost time to go to morning lessons. Jacen tapped the sides of

  the containers, saying good-bye to his pets. Just before turning to

  leave, though, he hesitated. He peered into the bottom most container,

  where the transparent crystal snake usually sat coiled in a bed of dry

  leaves.

  The crystal snake was nearly invisible, and Jacen could see it only by

  looking at the creature in a certain light. But now, no matter which

  way he looked, he saw no glitter of glassy scales, no rainbowish curve

  of light that bent around the transparent creature.

  Alarmed, he leaned down and discovered that the bottom corner of the

  cage had been bent upward . . . just enough for a thin serpent to

  slither out.

  "I've got a bad feeling about this," Jacen said, unconsciously echoing

  the words his father so often used.

  The crystal snake was not particularly dangerous-at least Jacen didn't

  think so. He did know from firsthand experience that the bite of the

  snake brought a moment of piercing pain, and then the victim fell into a

  deep sleep. Even though after an hour or so one would wake up and feel

  no ill effects, this was the sort of hazard someone like Raynar might

  use to cause trouble and perhaps force Jacen to move his pets to an

  outside storage module.

  And now the crystal snake was loose.

  His heart started racing with fear, but he remembered to use one of his

  uncle Luke'@ Jedi relaxation techniques to keep himself calm, to help

  him think more clearly. Jacen knew immediately what he had to do: he

  would have his sister Jaina help him find the snake before anyone

  noticed it was gone.

  He slipped out into the dim hall, his dark round eyes flicking from side

  to side to check for anyone who might notice him. Then he ducked into

  the next rounded stone doorway and stood blinking in the shadows of his

  sister's room.

  One entire wall of Jaina's quarters was filled with neatly stacked

  containers of spare parts, cyberfuses, electronic circuit loops, and

  tiny gears taken from dismantled and obsolete droids. She had removed

  unused power packs and control systems from the old Rebel war room deep

  in the inner chambers of the temple pyramid.

  The ancient temple had once been headquarters for the secret Rebel base

  hidden in the jungles on this isolated moon, long before the twins had

  been born. Their mother, Princess Leia, had helped the Rebels defend

  their base against the Empire's terrible Death Star; their father, Han

  Solo, had been just a smuggler at the time, but he had rescued Luke

  Skywalker at the end.

  Now, though, most of the old equipment from the empty Rebel base lay

  unused and forgotten by the Jedi trainees. Jaina spent her free time

  tinkering with it, putting the components together in new ways. Her room

  was crammed with so much large equipment that Jacen barely had enough

  space to squeeze inside. He looked around, but saw no sign of the

  escaped crystal snake.

 
"Jaina?" he said. "Jaina, I need your help!"

  He looked around the dim room, trying to find his sister. He smelled

  the sharp, biting odor of scorched fuses, heard the clunk of a heavy

  tool against metal.

  "Just a minute." Jaina's voice echoed hollowly inside the

  bar-rel-shaped hulk of corroded machinery that took up half of her

  quarters. He remembered when the two of them, with the help of their

  muscular female friend Tenel Ka, had somewhat clumsily used their Force

  powers to haul the heavy machine along the winding corridors so Jaina

  could work on it in her room far into the night.

  "Hurry!" Jacen said, feeling the urgency grow. Jaina squirmed backward

  out of an opening in the intake pipe. Her dark brown hair was straight

  and simple, tied back with a string to keep it away from her narrow

  face.

  Smudges of grease made hash marks on her left cheek.

  Though her shoulder-length hair was as rich and thick as her mothers,

  Jaina never wanted to take the time to twist and tangle it into the

  lovely, convoluted hairstyles for' which Princess Leia had been so

  famous.

  Jacen extended his hand to help her to her feet. "My crystal snake's

  loose again! We have to find it. Have you seen it?"

  She took little notice of his words. "No, I've been busy in here.

  Almost finished, though."

  She pointed down at the grimy pumping machinery. "When this is all done

  we'll be able to install it in the river next to the temple. The flowing

  water can turn the wheels and charge all of our batteries."

  Her words picked up speed as she began to talk.

  Once Jaina got started, she loved to explain things.

  Jacen tried to interrupt, but could find no pause in her speech. "But,

  my snake-"

  "With phased output jacks we can divert power to the Great Temple,

  provide all the light we need. With special protein skimmers added on,

  we could extract algae from the water and process it into food. We

  could even power all of the academy's communication systems and-" Jacen

  stopped her. "Jaina, why are you spending all your time doing this?

  Don't we have dozens of pen-nanent power cells left over from the old

  Rebel base?"

  She sighed, making him feel as if he had missed some deeply important

  point. "I'm not building this because it's useful," she said. "I'm

  doing it to see if I can. Once I know I can do it, I won't have to

  waste time anymore wondering whether anything I learn here is useful or

  not."

  Jacen was still not sure he understood. But then, his sister never

  could grasp his fascination for living creatures. "In the meantime,

  Jaina, could you help me find my snake? It's loose. I don't know

  where to look for it."

  "All right," Jaina said, brushing her dirty hands on her stained work

  overall. "If the snake escaped from your room, it probably moved down

  the corridor."

  The two of them stepped out into the long hall. Side by side, they

  scanned the shadows and listened.

  Jacen's room was the last chamber in one of the temple passages leading

  to a cold, cracked stone wall. But none of the cracks was wide enough

  for the crystal snake to hide in.

  "We'll have to check from room to room," Jaina said.

  Jacen nodded. "If something's wrong, we should be able to sense it.

  Maybe I can use the Force to track the snake, wherever it might be

  hiding."

  They heard the other Jedi students in their quarters dressing, washing

  up, or maybe just catching a few extra minutes of sleep. Jacen cocked

  his ears and listened, half-hoping to hear someone scream out loud,

  because then he would know where the snake had gone.

  They slipped from room to room, pausing at closed doors. Jacen touched

  his fingers to the wood, but he caught no tingling sensation that might

  indicate his escaped pet.

  But when they came to Raynar's half-open door, they immediately sensed

  something out of the ordinary. Peering inside, the twins spotted the

  boy sprawled on the polished stone tiles of the floor.

  Raynar wore fine garments of purple, gold, and scarlet cloth, the colors

  of his noble family's house. Despite Uncle Luke's gentle suggestions,

  Raynar rarely took off his fancy costume, never allowed himself to be

  seen in drab but comfortable Jedi training clothes.

  Raynar's bristly blond hair shone like flecks of gold dust in the

  morning sunlight spilling into his room through the window slits. His

  flushed cheeks sagged in and blew out as he snored softly in an awkward

  position on the cold tile floor.

  "Oh, blaster bolts!" Jacen said. "I think we've found my snake."

  Jaina slid the door closed and stationed herself by the crack so the

  crystal snake couldn't get past her.

  Jacen knelt beside Raynar's form and let his eyelids flutter closed. He

  stretched his fingers into the air, and his knuckles cracked.

  He let his mind flow, imagining what a snake's thoughts might be like.

  As usual he felt many things at once through the Force, but he focused

  down, looking for his snake.

  He sensed a slim, languid line of thought, an easily satisfied mind that

  right now felt cozy and safe. Its only thoughts were warm, warm . . .

  sleep, sleep . . . and quiet. The coiled-up crystal snake dozed

  beneath Raynar in the folds of his purple under-robes.

  "Here, Jaina," Jacen whispered. She left the door to crouch beside him.

  The fabric of her stained overall hissed like another snake as she

  dropped to her knees.

  "I suppose it's directly under Raynar-s body?"

  Jacen nodded. "Yes, where it's warmest."

  "That's a problem," Jaina said. "I could roll him over, and you grab

  the snake."

  "No, that would disturb it," Jacen said. "it might bite Raynar again."

  Jaina frowned. "He'd sleep through a week's worth of classes."

  "Yeah," Jacen said, "but then at least Uncle Luke could finish a lecture

  without getting interrupted by Raynar's questions."

  Jaina giggled. "You've got a point there."

  Jacen sensed the coiled snake with his mind, saw it resting peacefully;

  but just then, as if Raynar had heard them talking about him, the boy

  snorted and stir-red in his sleep.

  The snake surged with alarm. Jacen quickly sent out a calming message,

  using Jedi relaxation techniques Luke had taught him. He sent peaceful

  thoughts, quieting thoughts, that calmed not only the serpent but Raynar

  as well.

  "Working together, we could use our Jedi powers to lift Raynar up,"

  Jacen suggested.

  "Then I'll pull the snake out from underneath him."

  "Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina said, looking at her brother

  with raised eyebrows.

  Closing their eyes, the twins concentrated.

  They touched the fringes of Raynar's colorful robes with their

  fingertips as they imagined how light he could be . . . that he was

  merely a feather wafting into the air . . . that he weighed nothing at

  all, and they could make him drift upward. . . .

  Jacen held his breath, and the still-snoring Jedi student began to rise

  from the tiled floor.


  Rayna@s loose garments dangled like curtains underneath him, freeing the

  sleepy snake.

  Suddenly deprived of its warm hiding place, the crystal snake woke up in

  anger, instinctively wanting to lash out. Jacen sensed it uncoiling and

  seeking a living target, ready to strike.

  "Hold Raynar!" he shouted to Jaina as he flashed forward to snatch the

  slithering crystal snake. His fingers wrapped around its neck, grasping

  it behind the compact triangular head. He sent focused calming thoughts

  into the small reptilian brain, quelling its anger, soothing it.

  Jacen's quick movement and release of the Force startled Jaina, and she

  managed to hold Raynar up for only a second or two. As Jacen worked to

  calm the serpent, Jaina's grasp on the floating boy weakened and finally

  broke.

  Raynar tumbled to the hard stone floor in a pile of arms and legs and

  garishly colored cloth. The thud of impact was enough to wake him even

  from a snake-drugged sleep.

  He sat up with a grunt, blinking his blue eyes and shaking his head.

  Jacen continued to calm the invisible snake hidden in his hand. He sent

  tingling thoughts into its mind until the serpent fizzed with pleasure.

  Content, it wrapped itself around Jacen's wiist, resting its flat,

  transparent head on his clenched fist. Even in the best of light it

  barely shimmered. Its scales were like a thin film of diamonds, its