Shards of Alderaan Read online

his hold f or only a moment, but his balance was off. Trying to protect

  the thyrsl from harm, he tumbled backward toward the floor-only to be

  caught on a cushion of air just centimeters before he hit the

  flagstones. Jacen touched down lightly and breathed a sigh of relief.

  He raised his head to see Tenel Ka and Raynar standing together, locked

  in concentration.

  Concern was written all over the Alderaan boy's flushed face. He

  swirled the sleeves of his colored robes. "Sorry I distracted you,

  Jacen. Are you all right?Tenel Ka stretched out her arm and helped

  Jacen to his feet. 'It takes a good deal of practice,' she said, 'to

  climb with only one hand."

  'No kidding," Jacen said. He held up his other hand to show her the

  thyrsl. "At least we're both safe and sound," he added, a bit

  sheepishly. Once again, he had bumbled in front of Tenel Ka! There

  didn't seem to be any easy way to impress her.

  Jaina and Lowie had rushed over in response to Raynar's announcement.

  After seeing that her brother was all right despite the mishap, Jaina

  grinned mischievously at him. "Nice maneuver, laser brain."

  Lowie gave an urf of laughter.

  'Ib cover his embarrassment, Jacen turned to Raynar. 'Hey, let's go

  meet Dad and see if he's heard anything about your father."

  The other boy perked up, showing sudden, intense interest.

  Jacen cradled the thyrsl as they all ran out of the communications

  center. Along the way, he would find a warm spot on some sunbaked

  stones, well away from the reconstruction work, where the creature

  couldn't cause any more mischief.

  -----------------YAVIN'S SUN WAS bright and the jungle air warm, with a

  light breeze but none of the strong winds they had experienced a few

  days earlier. When Han Solo and Chewbacca strode out of the Falcon,

  Jaina turned to look behind her. Raynar stood alone a small distance

  away, twisting his brown sash around his fingers, his eyes averted from

  the happy family reunion.

  Han noticed him, too. He flashed a quick grin at Jaina and Jacen. His

  eyes, though, were serious. "Got a surprise for you kids from home, but

  let me talk to Raynar first."

  The young Alderaan boy looked up hopefully. Jaina saw her father shake

  his head.

  'No news, actually," Han Solo admitted.

  "But we've got some solid leads. If your father made it somewhere safe,

  we're hoping he'll try to get a message to you. In the meantime, we've

  got Lando Calrissian and some of the best ex-smugglers in the New

  Republic on the search."

  "I understand," Raynar said, then turned and walked dejectedly back

  toward the Great Temple, his bright robes drooping around him.

  With forced good humor after the sad news for Raynar, Han rubbed his

  hands together. "Ready for your surprise?" Han turned to yell up the

  ramp. "C'mon out."

  "A.nakin!" Jaina exclaimed as their brother appeared in the opening.

  "Hey, what're you doing here?" Jacen asked, giving his little brother a

  playful punch on the shoulder.

  "It's a long story,"Anakin said, sweeping his straight dark bangs away

  from his ice-blue eyes. "You see, I had an idea for restoring the Great

  Temple. You know how much I like to take things apart and put them

  together again. I've always been good at puzzles."

  "Well, this one has an awful lot of pieces," Jaina said, looking

  doubtfully at the piles of broken stones lying about. She dismissed a

  flickering thought that the whole place felt much bleaker, much emptier,

  since Zekk had departed.

  "I suggested that we could treat the temple like a puzzle-sort out the

  pieces, then fit them back together again. I figured I could see the

  patterns in my mind," Anakin continued. "Any areas that we can't

  reconstruct from the original stones can be reproduced by New Republic

  artists so they'll look just like the original Massassi work." He held

  up a little hologram of the Great Temple, taken long ago when it had

  been used as a hidden Rebel base.

  "We'll use this as a template." 'Well, at least I have one brother who's

  a genius," Jaina said, tossing Jacen a teasing look.

  "Mom seemed so excited by the idea that I sort of volunteered to come to

  Yavin 4, even though its not time for my classes to start again," Anakin

  went on. "I'm not sure how it happened. I just said that I'd be one of

  the best people for putting together the puzzle pieces, and Dad said

  he'd help, and Mom seemed so happy. . . . He spread his hands,

  looking a bit confused. 'And here I am."

  Han put a comforting hand on his younger son's shoulder. "Don't worry,

  kid. Your mom just has that effect on people. That's how she got

  Chewie and me to help with her crazyRebellion against the Empire." The

  olderWookiee groaned at the' memory.

  "Yeah," Jaina said, pondering, "and I remember that time Lowie and I

  volunteered to map out the orbits of space debris over Coruscant."

  Jacen added, "And then you and Lowie offered to help fix old Peckhum's

  space station, too." This time, Lowie groaned.

  "Getting people to volunteer is one of your mother's many gifts," Han

  concluded.

  "That's why she's a politician."

  Anakin looked over to where Luke Skywalker and some of his students were

  still collecting chunks of rock that had been blasted from the top of

  the temple pyramid. "Well, little brother," Jaina said, what are you

  waiting for?"

  Anakin took a deep breath and blew it out. "I volunteered-I guess I'd

  better get started." He trotted off toward the Great Temple.

  'I brought you each a little gift, as usual," Han said, producing a

  smooth, pearl-pink sphere and offering it to Jacen. "It's a gort egg.@@

  "Wow, I've always wanted one of these," Jacen said. "They make great

  pets-kind of like miniature woolamanders with really soft feathers. You

  can even teach them to talk."

  "It'll take almost a year to hatch," Han warned, "and you have to keep

  it warm the whole time."

  "No problem," Jacen assured him, looking over at his sister. "LTh-is

  it, Jaina?"

  She pretended to heave a deep sigh.

  "I think I can manage to build you a temperature-controlled cage,

  Jacen."

  "And for you, Jaina . . ." Han held out a meter-long chain of devices

  that looked like a rope of Corellian nerf sausages. "A modular signal

  transmitter."

  "Great! More components for my collection," Jaina said, grinning.

  "Don't thank me too soon," Han said.

  "The transmitter works, but this is such an old model that it doesn't

  have much range."

  "Mat's okay, Dad-it's modular. I can figure out a way to link in a

  higher-powered signal booster," Jaina said, feeling her spirits lift at

  the prospect of this new mechanical challenge.

  Jacen asked, as if the thought had suddenly struck him, "Why is it so

  important to Mom to rebuild the Great Temple just like it was? I mean,

  the Massassi weren't a particularly honorable race. Is she just doing

  this for Uncle Luke?"

  "No," Han said. "There's more to it than that. You kids never really

 
saw the planet Alderaan, where your mom grew up, since it was destroyed

  before you were born." 'Ve've seen holoclips," Jaina pointed out.

  "And those framed images you gave her."

  Han nodded absently. "Alderaan was a center of culture and education.

  Peaceful planet . . . lots of artists, philosophers, musicians.

  Grand Moll Tarkin made your mother watch while he used the Death Star to

  blast her home planet into tiny little chunks. Ever since then,

  anything the Empire ruined, your mom's tried to set right again. And in

  her memory, Yavin 4 was our first safe haven after your uncle Luke and I

  rescued her from the Death Star. For her, the Great Temple is a symbol

  of the Rebellion's struggle to build a fair government for everyone in

  the galaxy. So it's kind of a personal thing. Mom'll be coming here in

  six or seven days to check on our progress."

  "Hey, she'll be here for her birthday then," Jacen said, counting the

  days.

  "We thought it would be nice to have the whole family together for a

  change," Han said. "Even if we have to come here to do it. 'Dad,"

  Jaina said. "Jacen and I have been trying to come up with just the

  perfect gift for Mom's birthday. We thought that maybe if we went to

  the Alderaan system and got a special piece of Mom's planet, one that

  she could take with her wherever she went, like a keepsake.

  'Yeah," Han said in a soft voice, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

  "Yeah, I think your mom'd like that. But I don't have time to take you

  kids there. I've got to help with the work here, not to mention keeping

  up with the search for Raynar's father."

  'Veil, we could go by ourselves in Tenel Ka's ship," Jaina said, trying

  to hide her expression of eagerness and fervent hope.

  Han looked even more surprised. 'Oh, yeah. I forgot about the Rock

  Dragon.

  Tenel Ka's parents contacted Leia for permission to station a Hapan ship

  here."

  "You mean we can go then?" Jaina said.

  "I didn't say that. . . ." Han frowned, as if thinking it over

  seriously. "Well, all right," he said at last. "But only on two

  conditions."

  "Anything," Jaina said, and her brother nodded.

  "First, you have to let Chewie and me check out the ship personally, so

  we know it's safe for you to fly. Second, I want you back here in three

  days. No more. Just to Alderaan and back-no sightseeing, no

  joyriding."

  "We promise," Jaina said. "What could possibly go wrong?"

  In the end, Han and Chewie found nothing more significant than a rear

  stabilizer to replace on the Rock Dragon. By the next morning, the ship

  was ready for its flight to the Alderaan system.

  "Not a bad little hunk of machinery," Han said to Tenel Ka, looking

  around the cockpit approvingly. "Did they set it up specially so you

  could fly it with one hand?"

  "The controls have been adjusted to make that possible," Tenel Ka said.

  "But Jaina has agreed to act as pilot."

  Han crossed his arms over his vest, wearing a look of fatherly pride.

  "A Solo at the helm, huh? Good choice."

  Jaina sighed in relief at her father's response. "And Lowie's going to

  be my copilot," she said. Chewbacca pounded a hairy fist on his

  nephew's shoulder.

  'I'm all ready,' Jacen said. He tossed his duffel into a storage net,

  plopped down in one of the passenger's seats, and buckled his crash

  webbing.

  "I am also prepared," Tenel Ka said, seating herself beside Jacen.

  'Jaina, you may depart when ready."

  Lowie took the copilot's seat with an enthusiastic bellow, and Jaina

  strapped herself in at the pilot's station.

  "Three days now,' Han Solo called after them. 'I have your word on it."

  Jaina looked at her father and rolled her eyes. "We'll be fine, Dad.

  We're just going to get a piece of rock. If we're not back in three

  days, you have my personal permission to send out a search party."

  "Hey, if I can't trust my own kids, who can I trust?" Han shrugged, a

  lopsided smile glued to his face, but Jaina could tell her father was

  struggling to look nonchalant. Then he and Chewie left the ship and

  stood outside on the landing field.

  As the Rock Dragon took off, Jaina risked a glance away from her

  piloting tasks to watch her father and Chewie waving goodbye. Something

  felt strange, she thought.

  Maybe she just wasn't used to being on this side of the cockpit

  viewports, looking out at her father.

  WHEN THE ROCK Dragon reached the graveyard of Alderaan, Jaina stared out

  the front windowport, sensing the forevermagnified instant of despair

  that had accompanied the destruction of an entire planet.

  Only this jagged, broken rubble remained of her mother's homeworld.

  Princess Leia had grown up here, living in a sparkling white city on an

  island in the middle of a crater lake, soaring in giant

  repulsorfreighters across the peaceful grasslands, resting in solitude

  in the ancient organic structures built by a long-extinct insect race.

  .

  . .

  Sitting in the pilot's seat of the Hapan passenger cruiser, Jaina

  surveyed the countless flying splinters of rock scattered in space

  before her: huge boulders, small pebbles, congealed lumps of pitted

  metal.

  Each piece of debris was like a tombstone for the dead of Alderaan.

  In the copilot's chair, Lowie chuffed and growled, pointing at the

  dangerous swarms of rocks. Their navigation console displayed a thickly

  interwoven web of projected orbital paths.

  With her rudimentary understanding of his Wookiee dialect, Jaina was

  able to decipher some of the words Lowie spoke, but Em Teedee translated

  anyway. "Master Lowbacca feels this asteroid field will be most

  challenging to his navigational and piloting abilities. Personally, I

  feel it my duty to point out the potential hazards, should you choose to

  proceed. Asteroid fields can be extremely dangerous."

  Jaina pressed her lips together, her expression grim. "This isn't just

  any asteroid field, Em Teedee-this isn't natural. This used to be a

  planet, but it was blown to bits by the Death Star. It was my mother's

  planet."

  The other young Jedi Knights fell silent, feeling the intangible grief

  that surrounded the place, mourning those peaceful millions who had died

  here because of the Empire's brutality.

  Jaina stared at the crumbling shards, knowing that the bones

  ofalderaan's population drifted out there somewhere, as well, now little

  more than cosmic dust. All the great buildings and cities: the revered

  Alderaan University; Crevasse City, built light into canyon walls;

  Terrarium City, famed as a metropolis under glass. . . .

  Jaina had seen images of Alderaan in its glory. Her mother kept a

  gallery of paintings that showed her beloved homeworld.

  Han Solo had given them to Leia around the time of their wedding.

  She had heard her mother tell the story many times of how she had been a

  prisoner aboard the Death Star, forced to watch as Grand Moll Tarkin

  used the deadly battle station to obliterate the peaceful planet.

  Tarkin had given
no warning, allowed none of the population to escape.

  Now only this rubble field remained.

  As far as she knew, Leia had never returned to the Alderaan system.

  Jaina guessed that the sight would always be too painful, but hoped that

  a special shard of her mother's destroyed home would make a fine

  memento.

  She gripped the controls of the Rock Dragon. 'You ready, Lowie?" she

  said.

  "We're going inside."

  "Oh, do be careful," Em Teedee said.

  Jacen and Tenel Ka quietly checked their crash webbing, but did not

  interrupt the two pilots as they cruised into the scattershot storm of

  planetary debris.

  Around them, the rocks coursed and ricocheted, spinning about to display

  jagged edges, raw craters. Over two decades, the debris had collided

  again and again, slowly settling into an organized cloud. Some of the

  shards clung together through their own gravity, gradually fusing into

  clusters of rock.

  "This place has a strong . . . feel to it," Tenel Ka said. "As if I

  sense the ghosts of . . . many life forces obliterated at once."

  Jacen nodded. 'Uncle Luke talks about how there was a great disturbance