The Lost Ones Read online

  unconsciously imitated. "I have a meeting with the Howler Tree People of

  Bendone . . . they speak a very strange language and need a team of

  translators. It'll take me all morning long just to hold a conversation."

  She closed her eyes and rubbed her fingertips at her temples. "And their

  ultrasonic voices give me a headache!" Leia drew a deep breath and forced a

  smile. "But it's part of the job. We have to keep the New Republic strong.

  There are always threats from the outside."

  "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said gruffly. "We have seen the threat of the

  Shadow Academy and the Second Imperium firsthand." Lowbacca growled, clearly

  remembering the dark and difficult time he and the twins had experienced

  aboard the cloaked Imperial training station.

  "Hey, I've got something that'll cheer you up, Mom," Jacen said, reaching

  into his pocket. "A present I kept for you." He held out the glittering

  corusca gem he had snagged while using Lando Calrissian's gem-mining

  machinery deep in the stormy atmosphere of the gas-giant Yavin.

  Leia looked down at it, blinking in amazement. "Jacen, that's a corusca gem!

  Is this the one you found at GemDiver Station?"

  He shrugged and looked pleased. "Yeah - and I used it to cut my way free

  from my cell in the Shadow Academy . Would you like to have it?"

  Leia's expression showed how deeply moved she was, but she closed her son's

  fingers around the valuable gem. "Just having you offer it to me is a very

  special gift," she said. "But I don't really need any more jewels or

  treasures. I'd like you to keep it--find a special use for it. I'm sure

  you'll think of something." Jacen flushed with embarrassment, then turned an

  even deeper red when she gave him a big hug.

  Han Solo came into the cozy dining area from the family's living quarters,

  freshly washed and wide awake. "So kids, what's up for you today?"

  Jaina ran to give her father a hug. "Hi, Dad! We're going to spend some time

  catching up with our friend Zekk."

  "That scruffy-looking teenaged junk hunter?" Han asked with a faint smile.

  "He's not scruffy-looking!" Jaina said defensively.

  "Hey, just kidding," Han said.

  "Just make sure you don't get into trouble," Leia said.

  "Trouble?" Jacen said, blinking his eyes in feigned innocence. "Us?"

  Leia nodded. "Keep in mind that we're having a special diplomatic banquet

  tomorrow night. I don't want to have you stuck with a medical droid because

  of a sprained ankle--or worse."

  Threepio interrupted as he tried to herd dark-haired Anakin off to a quiet

  room. "I do wish you'd let me keep them here to continue their studies,

  Mistress Leia. it would be ever so much safer." Anakin looked dejected that

  he couldn't go out on an adventure with his older brother and sister.

  Em Teedee spoke up from Lowbacca's waist. "Well, you need have no fear for

  their safety, my conscientious colleague. I shall personally see to it that

  they behave with the utmost caution. You can count on me."

  Lowbacca growled a comment, and Jaina didn't think the Wookiee was agreeing

  with the little translator droid.

  In the open air Jaina waited next to Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Jacen as they

  stood in one of Coruscant's busy tourism information centers, a deck that

  jutted from the grandiose pyramid-shaped palace. Dignitaries and sightseers

  from across the galaxy came to the capital world to spend their credits

  visiting parks, museums, odd sculptures, and structures erected by ancient

  alien artisans.

  A boxy brochure droid floated along on its repulsorlifts, babbling in an

  enthusiastic mechanical voice. It cheerfully listed the most wonderful

  sights to see, recommended eating establishments catering to various

  biochemistries, and gave instructions on how to arrange tours for all body

  types, atmosphere requirements, and languages.

  Jaina fidgeted as she studied the bustling crowd - white-robed ambassadors,

  busy droids, and exotic creatures leashed to other strange creatures. She

  couldn't tell which were the masters and which the pets.

  "So where is he?" Jacen said, putting his hands on his hips. His hair was

  tousled and his face flushed as he scanned the crowd for a familiar face.

  The four young Jedi Knights stood under a sculpture of a gargoyle that

  broadcast shuttle arrival times from a speaker mounted in its stone mouth.

  Gazing up at the cloud-frothed sky, Jaina watched the silvery shapes of

  shuttles descending from orbit. She tried to amuse herself by identifying

  the vehicle types as they passed, but all the while she wondered what had

  delayed their friend Zekk. She checked her chronometer again and saw he was

  only about two standard minutes late. She was just anxious to see him.

  Suddenly, a figure dropped directly in front of her from the gargoyle statue

  overhead - a wiry youth with shoulder-length hair one shade lighter than

  black. He wore a broad grin on his narrow face, and his sparkling green

  eyes, wide with delight, showed a darker corona surrounding the emerald

  irises. "Hi, guys!"

  Jaina gasped, but Tenel Ka reacted with dizzying speed. In the fraction of a

  second following Zekk's landing, the warrior girl whipped out her fibercord

  rope and snapped a lasso around him, pulling the strand tight.

  "Hey!" the boy cried. "Is this the way Jedi Knights greet people?"

  Jacen laughed and slapped Tenel Ka on the back. "Good one!" he said. "Tenel

  Ka, meet our friend Zekk."

  Tenel Ka blinked once. "It is a pleasure."

  The wiry boy struggled against the restraining cords. "Likewise," he said

  sheepishly. "Now, if you wouldn't mind untying me?"

  Tenel Ka flicked her wrist to release the fibercord. While Zekk indignantly

  brushed himself off, Jaina introduced their Wookiee friend Lowbacca. Jaina

  grinned as she watched Zekk. Though the older boy had a slight build, he was

  tough as blaster-proof armor. Under the smudges of dirt and grime on his

  cheeks, she thought, he was probably rather nice-looking-but then, she

  wasn't one to talk about smudges on the face, was she?

  Recovering himself, Zekk raised his eyebrow,., and flashed a roguish smile.

  "I've been waiting for you guys," he said. "We've got plenty of stuff to see

  and do . . . and I need your help to salvage something."

  "Where are we headed?" Jacen asked.

  Zekk grinned. "Someplace we're not supposed to go - of course."

  Jaina laughed. "Well then, what are we waiting for?"

  Jacen looked out at the sprawling city and thought of all the places he had

  yet to explore. Coruscant had been the government world not only of the New

  Republic , but also of the Empire, and of the Old Republic before that.

  Skyscrapers covered virtually every open space, built higher and higher as

  the centuries passed and new governments moved in. The tallest buildings

  were kilometers high. Many had been destroyed during the bloody battles of

  the Rebellion and had recently been rebuilt by huge construction droids.

  Other parts of the planetwide city remained a jumble of decay and wreckage,

  their abandoned lower levels and piled garbage forgotten over the years.

  The buildings were so high that the gaps betw
een them formed sheer canyons

  that vanished to a point in the dark depths where sunlight never penetrated.

  Catwalks and pedestrian tubes linked the buildings, weaving them together

  into a giant maze. The lower forty or fifty floors were generally restricted

  from normal traffic; only refugees and daring big-game hunters in search of

  monstrous urban scavenger beasts were willing to risk venturing into the

  shadowy underworld.

  Like a native guide, Zekk led the four friends down connecting elevators,

  slide tubes, and rusty metal stairs, and across the catwalks from one

  building to another. Jacen followed, exhilarated. He wasn't sure he knew

  exactly where they were anymore, but he loved to explore new places, never

  knowing what sort of interesting plants or creatures he might find.

  The skyscraper walls rose like glass-and-metal cliff faces, with only a

  narrow wedge of daylight shining from above. As Zekk took the companions

  farther down, the buildings seemed broader, the walls rougher. Mushy blobs

  of fungus grew from cracks in the massive construction blocks; fringed

  lichens, some glowing with phosphorescent light, caked the walls. Lowbacca

  looked decidedly uneasy, and Jacen remembered that the lanky Wookiee had

  grown up on Kashyyyk, where the deep forest underworld was an extremely

  dangerous place.

  High overhead Jacen could hear the cries of sleek winged creatures-predatory

  hawk-bats that lived in the city on Coruscant. The breeze picked up,

  carrying with it heavy, warm scents of rotting garbage from far below. His

  stomach grew queasy, but he pressed on. Zekk didn't seem to notice. Tenel

  Ka, Lowie, and Jaina hurried behind them. They proceeded across a roofed-in

  walkway where many of the transparisteel ceiling panels had been smashed

  out, leaving only a wire reinforcement mesh that whistled in the breezes.

  Jacen noted etched symbols along the walls, all of them vaguely threatening.

  Some reminded Jacen of curved knives and fanged mouths, but the most common

  design showed a sharp triangle surrounding a targeting cross. It looked to

  Jacen like the tip of an arrow heading straight between his eyes. "Hey,

  Zekk, what's that design?" He pointed to the triangular symbol.

  Frowning, Zekk glanced around them in all directions and then whispered, "It

  means we have to be very quiet down here and move as fast as we can. We

  don't want to go into any of these buildings."

  "But why not?" Jacen asked.

  "The Lost Ones," Zekk said. "It's a gang. They live down here - kids who ran

  away from home or were abandoned by their parents because they were so much

  trouble. Nasty types, mostly."

  "Let's hope they stay lost," Jaina said.

  Zekk glanced up, his forehead creased with troubled thoughts. "The Lost Ones

  might even be looking at us right now, but they've never managed to catch me

  yet," he said. "It's like a game between us."

  "How have you managed to get away from them all the time?" Jaina whispered.

  "I'm just good at it. Like I'm a good scavenger," Zekk answered, sounding

  cocky. "I may not be in training as a Jedi Knight, but I make do with what

  skills I've got. Just streetwise, I guess. But," he continued, "even though

  I have kind of an . . . understanding with them, I'd rather not push it.

  Especially not while I'm with the twin children of the Chief of State."

  "This is a fact," Tenel Ka said grimly. She kept her hands close to her

  utility belt in case she needed to draw a weapon.

  Zekk quickly ushered them through dilapidated corridors that were heavily

  decorated with the gang symbols. Jacen saw signs of recent habitation,

  wrappers from prepackaged food, bright metallic spots where salvaged

  equipment had been torn away from its housings.

  At last they moved on to deeper levels. They all breathed more easily,

  although Zekk confessed even he had not fully explored this far down. "I

  think it's a shortcut,'' he said. "I need your help so I can recover

  something very valuable." He raised his dark eyebrows. "I think you'll like

  it - particularly you, Jacen."

  Zekk made his living by scavenging: salvaging lost equipment, removing

  scraps of precious metal from abandoned dwellings. He found lost treasures

  to sell to inventors, spare parts to repair obsolete machines, trinkets that

  could be turned into souvenirs. He seemed to have a real skill for finding

  items that other scavengers had missed over the centuries, somehow knowing

  where to look, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places.

  They descended an outer staircase, slick with damp MOSS from moisture

  trickling down the walls. Jacen had to squint just to see the steps. As they

  turned the corner of the building, Zekk stopped in surprise. In the dim

  light reflected from far above, Jacen could see a strange jumble protruding

  from the side of the building, smashed construction bricks, naked durasteel

  girders . . . and a crashed transport shuttle. From the drooping algae and

  fungus growing on its outer hull, the damaged shuttle appeared to have been

  there a long time.

  "Wow!" Zekk said. "I didn't even know this was here." He hurried forward,

  edging his way along the damaged walkway. "I don't believe it. The salvage

  hasn't even been picked over. See I'm lucky again!"

  "That's an Old Republic craft", Jaina said. "At least seventy years old.

  They haven't used those in . . . I can't even remember. What a find!"

  Tenel Ka and Lowie held the creaking ship steady as Zekk scrambled inside to

  look around. He poked into storage compartments, looking for valuables.

  "Plenty of components are still intact. Engine still looks good," he called.

  "Whoa, and here's the driver. I guess his parking permit ran out." Jacen

  came up behind him to see a tattered skeleton strapped into the cockpit.

  "Oh, do be careful," Em Teedee said from Lowbacca's waist. "Abandoned

  vehicles can be terribly dangerous - and you might get dirty as well."

  "Was this what you wished to show us, Zekk?" Tenel Ka said.

  The older boy stood, bumping his head on a bent girder that ran along the

  shuttle's ceiling. "No, no, this is a new discovery. I'll have to spend a

  lot more time down here." He grinned.

  Engine grease smudged his face, and his hands were grimy from digging

  through compartments. "I can get this stuff later. I need your help for

  something different. Let's go." Zekk scrambled out of the shuttle wreckage

  and grasped the rusted handrail on the rickety walkway. He looked around to

  get his bearings, making certain he wouldn't forget the location of this

  prize. The skull of the unlucky pilot stared out at them through empty eye

  sockets.

  "Looks like you really do know this place like the back of your hand," Jacen

  commented as Zekk led them elsewhere.

  "I've had plenty of practice," Zekk said. "Some of us don't take regular

  trips off planet and go to diplomatic functions all the time. I have to

  amuse myself with what I can find."

  It was midmorning by the time they reached Zekk's destination. The

  dark-haired boy rubbed his hands together in anticipation, and pointed far

  below. "Down there - can you see it?"

  Jacen looke
d down, down over a ledge to see a rusted construction crawler

  latched to a wall about ten meters away . . . completely out of reach. The

  construction crawler was a crane-like mechanical apparatus that had once

  ridden tracks along the side of the building, scouring the walls clean,

  effecting repairs, applying duracrete sealant - but this contraption had

  frozen up and begun to decay at least a century ago. Its interlinked rusted

  braces were clogged with fuzzy growths of moss and fungus. Jacen squinted

  again, wondering why the other boy meant to salvage parts from such an old

  machine-but then he saw the bushy mass, a tangle of uprooted wires and

  cables woven together, bristling with insulation material, torn strips of

  cloth, and plastic. It looked almost like a . . .

  "It's a hawk-bat's nest," Zekk said. "Four eggs inside. I can see them from

  here, but I can't get down there by myself. If I can snatch even one of

  those eggs, I could sell it for enough credits to live on for a month."

  "And you want us to help you get it?" Jaina asked.

  "That's the idea," Zekk said. "Your friend Tenel Ka there has a pretty

  strong rope - as I found out! And some of you look like good climbers,

  especially that Wookiee."

  Em Teedee shrilled, "Oh no, Lowbacca. You simply cannot climb down there! I

  absolutely forbid it." Lowie hadn't looked too eager at first, but the

  translating droid's admonishment only served to convince him otherwise. The

  Wookiee growled an agreement to Zekk's plan.