Heirs of the Force Page 12

  He toiled in silence, never cursing, never complaining, simply focused

  on the task of getting the campfire lit. And when he succeeded, he

  showed no satisfaction, no joy.

  With the fire finally blazing, the TIE pilot ducked back inside his hut,

  rummaged in a vine-woven basket, and returned with a large spherical

  fruit. The fruit was encased in an ugly, warty brown rind. Jaina did

  not recognize it. It was nothing they ate at the Jedi academy.

  Holding it in his injured, gauntleted hand, the pilot used a sharpened

  stone to split open the rind, then peeled the fruit with his fingers.

  The flesh inside was pale yellowishgreen, speckled with scarlet. He

  broke the fruit into sections, shuffled over to the two captives, and

  pushed one of the fruit sections in Jaina's face. "Eat."

  She clamped her lips together for a moment, afraid that the Imperial

  soldier might be trying to poison her. Then she realized that the TIE

  pilot could have killed either of them at any time-and that she was

  extremely hungry and thirsty.

  Her hands still bound by the drying vine, she leaned forward and opened

  her mouth to bite into the bright fruit. The explosion of tart

  citrus-tasting juice proved surprisingly invigorating and delicious. She

  chewed slowly, savoring the taste, and swallowed.

  Jacen also ate his. They nodded their thanks to the TIE pilot, who

  fixed them with a stony gaze.

  Sensing an opening, Jacen asked, "What are you going to do with us,

  sir?" He tried to rub his chin against his shoulder to wipe off the

  juice dribbling from his lips.

  The TIE pilot stared unnervingly at him for several moments before he

  turned his face toward the bushes. "Not yet determined."

  Jaina's chest muscles constricted. All of this had been an accident, a

  mistake. From the thick bushes, the TIE pilot had probably watched them

  tinker with his ruined ship for days. But Jacen's accidental discovery

  of his primitive shelter had forced him to react.

  What could the Imperial soldier do with them? He didn't seem to have

  many options.

  "What's your name?" Jaina asked.

  The TIE pilot snapped upright and looked down at the black leather glove

  covering his twisted arm. He turned slowly toward her, like a droid

  with worn-out servomotors.

  "CE3K-1977." He rattled off the numbers as if he had memorized them.

  Service rank and operating number only.

  "Not your number," Jaina persisted. "Your name. I'm Jaina. This is my

  brother Jacen."

  "CE3K-1977," the TIE pilot said again, without emotion.

  "Your name?p' Jaina asked a third time.

  Finally her question seemed to perplex him. He looked at the ground,

  looked at his tattered uniform. His mouth opened and closed several

  times, but no sound came out, until finally he said in a croaking voice,

  "Qorl . . . Qorl. My name was Qorl."

  "We're staying at the academy in the old temples," Jacen said, wearing a

  small grinthe kind that always disarmed their mother when she was angry

  at him. But it didn't seem to be working with the TIE pilot.

  "Rebel base," Qorl said.

  "No, it's a school now," Jaina said. "Everyone's there to learn. It's

  not a base any longer.

  it hasn't been a base for . . . twenty years or so. Pt

  "it is a Rebel base," Qorl insisted with such finality that Jaina

  decided not to pursue the subject any further.

  "How did you get here?" she asked, leaning closer on the smooth rock.

  The campfire crackled between them. "How long have you lived in the

  jungle?" The tight vines constricting her circulation made her hands

  numb.

  She flexed her fingers as she bent toward the fire. The smoke smelled

  rich and sweet from the fresh jungle wood.

  The TIE pilot blinked his pale eyes and stared into the crackling

  flames. He looked as if he had been transported back in time and was

  watching a newsloop of his own buried memories.

  "Death Star," Qorl said. "I was on the Death Star. We came here to

  destroy the Rebel base after Grand Moff Tarkin blew up Alderaan.

  This was our next target."

  Jaina felt a pang as she remembered her mother talking of the lovely

  grass-covered planet Alderaan, the peaceful windsongs and tall towers

  rising above the plains. Princess Leia's home had been the heart of

  galactic culture and civilization-untii it was wiped out in a single

  blow by the incredible cruelty of the Empire.

  "We must obliterate the Rebels at all costs," Qorl continued. "Rebels

  cause damage to the Empire."

  He recited a litany of what seemed to be memorized phrases, thoughts

  that had been brainwashed into him. "The Emperors New Order will save

  the galaxy. The Rebels want to destroy that dream, and so we must

  eradicate the Rebels. They are a cancer to peace and stability."

  "You were on the Death Star," Jacen prompted. "That was over twenty

  years ago.

  What happened?"

  Oorl continued to stare deeply into the fire.

  His scratchy voice was barely more than a whisper. "The Rebels knew we

  were coming.

  They fought. They sent their defenses against the battle station.

  All TIE squadrons were launched.

  "I flew with my squadron. All my companions were destroyed by X-wing

  defensive fire.

  I was damaged in the cross fire . . . one solar panel out of

  commission. I spun away from the Death Star, out of control.

  "I needed to get back to effect repairs. All comm channels were jammed,

  filled with dozens of requests for assistance. My orbit was decaying,

  and I spun toward the fourth moon of Yavin. I kept trying to hail

  someone on the comm channels. When I finally got through, I was told I

  would have to wait for rescue. They instructed me to make a good

  landing if I could-and to wait."

  "So you crashed," Jaina said.

  "The jungle cushioned my fall. I was thrown out of my craft into the

  dense brush . . . when one of the solar panels caught and lodged in the

  trees above. I limped over to my TIE fighter. Stayed as close as I

  dared, afraid that it might explode.

  My arm-" He held up his left arm in the black leather gauntlet. "Badly

  injured, ligaments torn, bones broken.

  "I looked up into the sky just in time to see the Death Star blow up. It

  was like another sun in the sky. Flaming chunks of debris fell through

  the air. It must have started dozens of forest fires. For weeks,

  meteor showers were like fireworks as the wreckage rained' down onto the

  moon.

  "And I stayed here."

  The firelight bathed Oorl's face with a dancing, yellowish glow. The

  jungle sounds burred in a hypnotic hum all around them.

  The TIE pilot gave no sign that he realized his two captives were

  listening. Only his lips moved as he continued his tale.

  "I have waited here, and waited, as ordered. No one has come to rescue

  me."

  "But," Jaina said, "all those years! This place has been abandoned for

  quite some time, but people have been at the Jedi academy for eleven

  years now. Why haven't you turned yourself in? Don't you realize
>
  what's happened in the galaxy since you crashed.

  "Surrender is betrayal!" Oorl snapped, glaring at her as anger

  flickered across his weathered face.

  "But we're not lying," Jacen said. "The war is over. There is no more

  Empire." He took a deep breath and then plunged ahead. "Darth Vader is

  dead. The Emperor is dead. The New Republic now rules. Only a few

  remnants of old Imperial holdouts are still buried in the Core Systems

  at the center of the galaxy."

  "I don't believe you," Oorl said flatly.

  "If you take us back to the Jedi academy we can prove it. We can show

  you everything," Jaina said. "Wouldn't you like to go home?

  Wouldn't you like to be free of this place? We could get your arm

  treated."

  Qorl held up his glove and stared at it. "I used my medi-kit," he said.

  "I tended it as best I could. It is good enough, although there was

  much pain . . . for a long time."

  "But we've got Jedi healers!" Jaina said.

  "We've got medical droids. You could be happy again. Why stay here?

  There's nothing to betray: there is no more Empire."

  "Be quiet," Oorl said. "The Empire will always rule. The Emperor is

  invincible."

  "The Emperor is dead," Jacen said.

  "The Empire itself can never die," Oorl insisted.

  "But if you won't let us take you back to get help, then what do you

  want?" Jaina asked.

  Jacen nodded, chiming in. "What are you trying to accomplish?"

  "What can we do for you, Oorl?"

  The TIE pilot turned away from the campfire to stare at them. His

  haggard, weatherbeaten face held new power and obsession, springing from

  deep within his mind.

  "You will finish repairs to my ship," he said. "And then I shall fly

  away from this prison moon. III return to the Empire as a glorious hero

  of war. Surrender is betrayaland I never surrendered."

  "And what if we won't help you?" Jacen said with all the bravado he

  could manage.

  Jaina instantly wanted to kick him for provoking the TIE pilot.

  Qorl looked at the young boy, his face coldly expressionless again.

  "Then you are -----------------expendable," he said.

  IT TOOK EM TEEDEE several moments to recalibrate his sensors after he

  dropped from Lowbacca's fiber-belt. He had fallen, bouncing, crashing,

  and honking through the canopy until he finally came to rest on a dense

  mat of leafy vines that tied together the lower branches.

  "Master Lowbacca, come back!" he said, amplifying his voice circuits to

  their maximum volume levels. "Don't leave me! Oh, dear. I knew that

  was a bad idea."

  He adjusted his optical sensors so he could see better in the dim light

  of the lower levels.

  He was surrounded by thickets that were nearly inaccessible to anyone as

  large as even a young Wookiee.

  "Help! Help me!" Em Teedee shouted again. He decided it would be

  most effective to continue shouting every forty-five seconds, because he

  calculated that was the minimum amount of time necessary for anyone

  nearby to come within earshot.

  Unable to move and scout out his location, Em Teedee's best guess was

  that he was still twenty meters above the ground. He hoped that no

  slight jarring of the branches would cause him to break free and tumble

  down again. If he fell that far to the ground, he might strike one of

  the rough lava outcroppings and split open his outer casing. With his

  circuits spilled across the jungle floor, no one would ever be able to

  put him back together again in the proper fashion. His circuits buzzed

  at the thought.

  Forty-five seconds had passed. He called out again for help, then

  waited. He shouted repeatedly for the next hour and eleven minutes,

  hoping desperately to attract some sort of attention, someone to come

  rescue him.

  But when he finally did attract a curious investigator, Em Teedee wished

  he had kept his vocal circuits switched off.

  A large pack of chatterin woolamanders scurried through the lower

  canopy, stirring up leaves and cracking twigs in their hectic passage.

  The arboreal creatures were loud and agile, able to clamber from thin

  branches to thick ones and back again without losing their balance. They

  seemed to be engaged in a contest to see who could yowl and chatter the

  loudest in the jungle silence as twilight deepened.

  Somehow, over all the ruckus, they managed to hear Em Teedee's cries for

  help.

  Em Teedee knew from his limited database of Yavin 4 that woolamanders

  were curious, social creatures. Now that they had heard him, they began

  to search. In only moments, with their sharp, slit-eyed vision, they

  had spotted the translator droid's shiny outer casing in the jungle

  shadows. The pack of colorful, hairy creatures swarmed toward him.

  "Oh, no," Em Teedee cried. "Not you.

  Please-I was hoping for someone else to rescue me."

  The woolamanders came closer, rattling branches, rustling leaves. Their

  bright purple fur bristled with suspicion and delight.

  "Go away! Shoo!" Em Teedee said.

  The woolamanders let out a loud, shrieking celebration of their

  discovery. A large male snatched Em Teedee from his resting place in

  the vines.

  "Put me down," Em Teedee said. "I insist that you let go of me at

  once."

  The large male tossed Em Teedee to his mate, w o caug t t trans ato roid

  and turned him over and around, pong at the, shiny circles. She dug her

  grimy f nger into the gold circle of his optical sensors.

  "That's my eye-get your finger away from it! Now I'm upside down.

  Straighten me out . . . put me down!"

  The female shook and rattled him to see if he would make other noises.

  When she went to a thick branch and made ready to smash him down on it,

  as she would crack open a large fruit, Em Teedee set off his automatic

  alarm sirens, shrieking and whooping at such volume and at such a

  painful pitch that the female dropped him. He bounced on another leafy

  branch, then came precariously to rest.

  "Help!" Em Teedee wailed.

  One of the smaller woolamanders rushed in to snatch him from his resting

  place. With loud chattering and squeals of delight, the young

  woolamander dashed along the lower branches, holding his prize high as

  Em Teedee continued to howl for assistance. The other young

  woolamanders chased after the youngster, clamoring for the prize.

  Em Teedee, in such a panic that he could no longer stand it without

  overloading his circuits, shut down so he wouldn't have to see what was

  about to happen to him.

  Sometime late in the night he powered back on again to find that he

  could see nothing: his optical sensors were covered with thick fur.

  He detected a gentle motion . . . breathing, snoring. Then the young

  woolamander stir-red in its sleep. It shifted, allowing Em Teedee to

  discover that the small creature now lay sleeping in the crotch of a

  tree branch, contentedly hugging his new toy to his fur-covered chest.

  Around them, the other family members of the large arboreal group sighed

  and dozed, resting peacefully. Em Teedee h
ad an impulse to cry out

  again for help, still hoping that someone might come to rescue him.

  All the noisy woolamanders were finally asleep, though, and Em Teedee

  decided to treasure this moment of peace. He could only hope for

  something better to happen the next day. ----------------DAWN CAME FAST

  and hot, as the distant white sun climbed around the fuzzy ball of

  Yavin. Jungle creatures awoke and stirred.

  The air warmed rapidly, thick with humidity that rose from low hollows

  where mist had collected in the night.

  Jacen and Jaina had slept awkwardly, their hands still tied with the

  resilient purple vines. Jacen fervently wished he had spent more time

  practicing delicate and precise Force exercises. He didn't have the

  skill or the accuracy to nudge and untie the thin knotted vines with his

  mind.

  As soon as there was light enough to work, Oorl emerged from his tree

  shelter and shook the twins awake. He gave them each sips of cool water

  from a gourd he dipped in the stream, then used a long stone knife to

  saw off the vines binding their wrists.