Lightsabers Read online

  Tenel Ka threw her spear one last time, then retrieved it and turned to

  meet Luke. She and the Jedi Master had shared a special bond from the

  time the two of them had spent together searching for the kidnapped

  twins and Lowie and rescuing them from the Shadow Academy . . . though

  Jacen sensed that Tenel Ka and Uncle Luke shared other secrets as well.

  "Greetings, Master Skywalker," Tenel Ka said.

  The tinny voice of Em Teedee, the miniaturized translator droid hanging

  from a clip on Lowbacca's belt, chimed out, "Master Lowbacca, we have a

  guest. If you're quite finished fussing with those controls, I believe

  Master Skywalker wishes to converse with you."

  Lowie grunted and raised his shaggy head, scratching the remarkable

  black streak of fur that rose over one eyebrow and curved down his back.

  Jaina scrambled up beside him. "What is it? Oh, hi, Uncle Luke."

  "I'm glad you're all here," Luke said. "I wanted to discuss your

  training. You four have been in closer contact with the Second Imperium

  than my other students, so you know the danger better than they do. You

  also all have extraordinarily strong Jedi potential, and I think perhaps

  you're ready for a greater challenge than the others."

  "Like what?" Jacen asked eagerly.

  "Like taking the next step toward becoming full Jedi Knights," Luke

  said.

  Jacen's mind spun, trying to figure out what his uncle meant, but Jaina

  exclaimed, "You want us to build our own lightsabers, don't you?"

  "Yes," Luke nodded. "I normally wouldn't suggest this so early,

  especially for such young students. But I think we're in for a battle so

  difficult that I want you to be prepared to use every weapon at your

  disposal."

  Jacen felt a surge of delight, followed by sudden uneasiness. Not long

  ago he had desperately wanted his own lightsaber, but he had been forced

  to train with one at the Shadow Academy . . . and he and his sister had

  come close to killing each other in a deceptive test. "But, Uncle Luke,

  I thought you said it was too dangerous for us."

  Luke nodded soberly. "It is dangerous. As I recall, I once caught you

  playing with my weapon because you wanted one so much-but I think you've

  learned an important lesson since then about taking lightsabers

  seriously."

  Jacen agreed. "Yeah, I don't think I'll ever again think of a lightsaber

  as a toy."

  Luke smiled back at him. "Good. That's an important start," he said.

  "These weapons are not playthings. A lightsaber is a dangerous and

  destructive instrument, a powerful blade that can strike LIGHTSABERS

  ^ down an opponent-or a friend, if you're not careful."

  "We'll be careful, Uncle Luke," Jaina assured him with an earnest nod.

  Luke still seemed skeptical. "This isn't a reward.

  It's an obligation, a difficult new set of lessons for you. Perhaps the

  work involved in building your own lightsaber will teach you to respect

  it as a tool, as you learn how the Jedi created their own personal

  weapons, each with its special characteristics."

  "Always wanted to know how a lightsaber worked.

  Can I take yours apart, Uncle Luke?" Jaina asked, her brandy-brown eyes

  pleading.

  Now Luke let a smile cross his face. "I don't think so, Jaina-but you'll

  learn about them soon enough." He looked at the four young Jedi Knights.

  "I want you to begin without delay."

  ^

  ----------------JAINA PAID ATTENTION to her uncle Luke's words with only

  half a mind, the rest of her concentration focusing on the problem of

  where to get the precious components for building her very own

  lightsaber.

  She and her brother, along with Lowie and Tenel Ka, were in one of the

  upper solariums in the Great Temple, a room made of polished marble

  slabs inset with semiprecious stones. Bright light streamed through

  tall, narrow windows that had been chiseled into the stone blocks by

  ancient Massassi tribesmen.

  Luke Skywalker sat nearby on a deep window ledge, uncharacteristically

  relaxed and boyish. He enjoyed being with a small group of trainees,

  especially his niece and nephew and their friends, talking about things

  that interested him.

  "You may have heard about Jedi Masters during the Clone Wars who were

  able to fashion lightsabers in only a day or two, using whatever raw

  materials were at hand," Luke said. "But don't get the idea that your

  weapon is a quick little project to

  ^ 6 LIGHTSABERS

  ^ be slapped together. Ideally, a Jedi took many months to construct a

  single perfect weapon that he or she would keep and use for a lifetime.

  Once you build it, the lightsaber will become your constant companion,

  your tool, and a ready means of defense."

  He stood up from his seat on the window ledge.

  "The components are fairly simple. Every lightsaber has a standard power

  source, the same type used in small blasters, even in glowpanels. They

  last a long time, though, because Jedi should rarely use their

  lightsabers."

  "Got some of those power sources in my room," Jaina said. "Spare parts,

  you know."

  "One of the other crucial pieces," Luke continued, "is a focusing

  crystal. The most powerful and sought-after gems are rare kaibuff

  crystals. However, though lightsabers are powerful weapons, their design

  is so flexible that practically any kind of crystal can be used. And,

  since I don't happen to have a stash of kaiburr crystals"-he

  smiled"you'll have to make do with something else, of your own

  choosing."

  Luke held out the handle of his own lightsaber, sliding his palm over

  the smooth grip, then igniting it with a startling snap-hiss. The

  brilliant yellowgreen blade drowned out even the bright sunlight in the

  room.

  "This is not my first lightsaber." Luke drew it back and forth through

  the empty air so that its hum changed frequency. "Note the color of its

  blade. I lost my first lightsaber years ago . . . my father's

  lightsaber." He swallowed and seemed to struggle against a dark memory

  from his past. Jaina knew the story of how Luke had lost his other

  lightsaber during a duel with Darth Vader on Cloud City. In that

  terrible fight Luke Skywalker had lost not only his lightsaber, but his

  hand as well.

  "My first weapon had a pale blue beam. The colors vary, according to the

  frequencies of the crystals used. Darth Vader's lightsaber"-he drew a

  deep breath-"my father's lightsaber was a deep scarlet."

  Jaina nodded solemnly. She remembered fighting Vader's holographic image

  on the Shadow Academy-though it had actually been her own brother Jacen

  in disguise. Her lightsaber experiences had not been pleasant on the

  Imperial station . . . and now her feelings about the energy blades were

  even more confused. Her friend Zekk had also been taken by Brakiss and

  the Second Imperium. Jaina knew she would have to fight to get him back.

  Luke continued, "One of my students, Cilghal, a Calamarian like Admiral

  Ackbar, made her lightsaber with smooth curves and protrusions, as if

  the handle had been grown from meta
llic coral. Inside, she used a rare

  ultima-pearl, one of the treasures found in the seabeds of her watery

  planet.

  LIGHTSABERS

  ^

  "My first true failure as a teacher was another student named Gantoris.

  He built his lightsaber in only a few intense days, following

  instructions given to him by the evil spirit of Exar Kun. Gantoris

  thought he was ready, and my mistake was not seeing what he was up to.

  "You, my young Jedi Knights, must be different.

  I can't wait any longer to train you. You must learn how to build your

  lightsabers-and how to use them-in the right way. The galaxy has

  changed, and you must meet the challenge. A true Jedi is forced to adapt

  or be destroyed."

  Tenel Ka spoke up. "Where will we find these crystals to build our

  weapons, Master Skywalker?"

  she asked. "Are they lying on the ground?"

  Luke smiled. "Perhaps. Or it's possible they could be scavenged from old

  equipment left here from when this place was a Rebel base. Or maybe you

  already have resources you haven't yet realized." He shot a quick look

  at Jacen, but Jaina couldn't decipher what the glance meant.

  "I'd like you to start on your lightsabers immediately." Luke switched

  off his throbbing weapon and looked down at its handle. "But I hope

  you'll need to use your weapons only rarely . . . if ever."

  A few days later, Jaina sat hunched over her worktable inside her

  quarters. She had strung up extra glowpanels to allow her sufficient

  illumination to work through the night. Dozens of tools and pieces of

  equipment lay on the tabletop, arranged in a careful order so that she

  knew where every component, every wire and circuit might be found.

  After Jaina had given each of her friends an appropriate power source to

  build their own lightsabers, the young Jedi Knights had split up to

  search for the precious crystals and other components that would make

  their new weapons function. Jaina, though, wanted to make the lightsaber

  particularly hers, a symbolic extension of her unique personality. She

  would make it from scratch in a way that the others would never attempt.

  She smiled at her own ingenuity.

  Dark smoke rose from the portable furnace she had brought in, and she

  blinked to clear the chemical fumes from her eyes as she bent over it.

  Carefully, she added the next batch of powdered elements in the precise

  mixture her datapad suggested. She drew on her Force powers, amplifying

  her vision to observe the chemicals interacting, to watch them bond into

  a tight, organized lattice.

  The precisely pure crystals began to grow. . . .

  She adjusted the temperature, watching intently, though the process of

  crystalline growth took hours.

  She focused her mind on shaping the facets as they emerged from the

  molten mixture in the furnace, making the planes tilt at appropriate

  angles. The growing crystals gobbled up and stored the extra energy

  pumped into the mixture by the furnace.

  LIGHTSABERS

  ^ Finally, by morning, her eyes bloodshot and gritty from lack of sleep,

  Jaina shut down the system. She let the furnace cool until she could

  reach in and take out her beautiful, sparkling crystals.

  They were a rich purplish blue, shimmering with inner energy. They had

  formed perfectly, as she had expected, guided by her own mental skills.

  She held them in her palm and smiled. Now for the next step.

  The tip of Jacen's tongue stuck out between his lips as he focused with

  unaccustomed concentration on the mechanical task at hand. It had

  already taken him a week to get this far.

  He wanted to rush through the project, jam the components into place,

  connect the power, and turn on his lightsaber-his own lightsaber-but he

  took Uncle Luke's words seriously. This was a weapon he would use for

  the rest of his life, the weapon of a Jedi. A few weeks didn't seem so

  long to invest in creating it.

  Much as it went against his nature to do so, Jacen forced himself to be

  meticulous and patient, knowing that he had to make sure everything fit

  together just so in the precise configuration required.

  He had the power source Jaina had given him, and it was easy to find

  pieces of metal in the right shape and size to form the casing. He used

  Jaina's tools to cut the pieces into interlocking configura22 Star Wars:

  Young Jedi Knights tions and file down the rough edges. After a few days

  of doing that, he installed the power source, connecting all the leads.

  Then he added the control buttons.

  Jaina could have whipped the casing together in just a few minutes, but

  it took him days to gather all the parts. Now, even though his scavenger

  hunt was over, it still seemed to take forever to assemble the thing.

  Jacen would rather have been outside hunting for more specimens to add

  to his menagerie-or better yet, playing with the ones that cheerfully

  bounced about in their cages, often housed mere centimeters from other

  creatures that would gladly have had them for breakfast.

  He heard the crystal snake rustling in its repaired cage, and then one

  of the reptile birds began to chirrup-but Jacen steeled himself,

  focusing on the project at hand. The lightsaber was almost finished,

  almost finished! He would be the first to complete his, and Master Luke

  would be very proud.

  With the handle mostly assembled, he wrapped special grip-textured

  bindings around it so that he could hold and wield the blade with the

  gentle ease of a Jedi swordsman. Now Jacen was ready to install the

  powerful crystal.

  He went to the personal locker box where he kept his valuable

  possessions and withdrew a small, glittering object-a Corusca gem. He

  had snared LIGHTSABERS

  ^ the gem during a mining demonstration at Lando Calrissian's GemDiver

  Station, and had later used it to cut himself free from his locked

  quarters in the Shadow Academy. He had offered the jewel to his mother

  as a special gift-but she had persuaded Jacen to keep the gem, to find a

  special use for it.

  And what could be more special than using it in his own lightsaber?

  Lowbacca prowled through the clutter in the former Rebel control room,

  left over from when the Great Temple had been used as a base in the

  struggle against the Empire. The soldiers had left most of their old

  equipment here when they fled the small jungle moon. In the years since,

  most of the machinery and computers had been gutted for of er purposes,

  since Luke Skywalker's Jedi academv did not rely heavily on gadgets and

  technology. Although Jaina had already scavenged these rooms, Lowie knew

  that a great deal of equipment still remained to be picked through.

  Poking his snout into shadowy corners, the Wookiee snuffled and rumbled

  thoughtfully to himself. He lifted metal coverings to look around,

  rummaging through wires and circuit boards, taking apart flatscreen

  displays.

  "Master Lowbacca, I simply cannot imagine what you think you're

  accomplishing," Em Teedee said from the clip at his waist. "You've been

  prodding around here for hours, and you've fo
und nothing."

  Lowic let out a short growl.

  "Well, really! No, I don't believe you can sniff them out with your

  nose. What an absurd notion!

  How could anyone possibly sniff out a crystal?" Em Teedee's temper

  seemed to be getting short and Lowie wondered if perhaps the little

  translating droid's batteries were running low.

  "Anyway, I doubt you'll ever locate any kind of crystal in here. I'm

  sure the entire control room was thoroughly ransacked years ago."

  Lowie barked a comment as he continued his search.

  "Quite the contrary," Em Teedee said. "I am not a pessimist-I'm simply

  being realistic. I don't know why Master Skywalker should expect

  everyone to simplyfind appropriate crystals here or there.

  What if one of you created an inferior lightsaber?

  What good would that do? I daresay it's a possibility. I really think

  you should give up the search."

  With a sudden bellow of triumph, Lowie reached into the cluttered

  interior of a small, high-resolution projection system and withdrew two

  glittering components: a flat focusing lens and a spherical enhancement

  jewel. The items had been used in the high-res display, and Lowie knew

  instinctively that they could be applied to the same general purpose

  inside his new lightsaber.