Dark Apprentice Read online

  tribunal. Before they could voice their mandatory--and probably insincere--

  objections, Ackbar turned and strode out of the room, walking as tall as he

  dared, yet feeling crushed and insignificant.

  He went back toward his quarters to pack his most prized possessions

  before heading to the hangar bay, where he would take the ship Terpfen had

  promised him. He had one place to visit first, and then he would return to

  his

  homeworld of Calamari.

  If General Obi-Wan Kenobi could vanish into obscurity on a desert planet

  like Tatooine, Ackbar could do the same and live out the rest of his life

  among the lush seatree forests under the seas.

  With the pretense of taking out a B-wing fighter to test its response

  under extreme stress, Terpfen soared away from Coruscant. The other

  distraught

  Calamarian crewmen wished him luck before he departed, assuming he intended

  to

  continue his desperate work to clear Admiral Ackbar's name.

  But just before the jump into hyperspace, Terpfen entered a new series of

  coordinates into the navicomputer.

  The B-wing lurched with a blast of hyperdrive engines. Starlines appeared

  around him, and the ship snapped into the frenzied, incomprehensible swirl

  of

  hyperspace. He reflexively slid the nictating membrane over his glassy eyes.

  Terpfen felt shudders pass through his body as he strained to resist the

  calling. But he knew by now, after all these years, that he could do nothing

  to fight it. Screaming nightmares never let him forget his ordeal in the

  hellish conditioning on the Imperial military training planet of Carida.

  The scars on his battered head were not just from torture, but from

  Imperial vivisection, where the doctors had sawed open his skull and scooped

  out portions of his brain--segments that controlled a Calamarian's loyalty,

  his volition, and his resistance to special commands. The cruel xenosurgeons

  had replaced the missing areas of Terpfen's brain with specially grown

  organic

  circuits that mimicked the size, shape, and composition of the removed

  tissue.

  The organic circuits were perfectly camouflaged and could resist the most

  penetrating medical scan, but they made him a helpless cyborg, a perfect spy

  and saboteur who could not think for himself when the Imperials wanted him

  to

  think their thoughts. The circuits left him sufficient mental capacity to

  play

  his part, to make his own excuses each time the Imperials summoned him....

  After guiding his ship for several standard time units, Terpfen looked at

  the chronometer. At the precise instant indicated he pulled the levers that

  switched off the hyperdrive motors and kicked in the sublight engines.

  His ship hung near the lacy veil of the Cron Drift, the gaseous remnants

  of a multiple supernova where four stars had simultaneously erupted some

  four

  millennia ago. The wisps of gas crackled with pinks, greens, and searing

  white. The residual x rays and gamma radiation from the old supernova caused

  static over his comm system, but it would also mask this meeting from prying

  eyes.

  A dark Caridan ship already hung there waiting for him. With a flat

  stealth coating on its hull, the Caridan ship looked like a matte-black

  insect

  that swallowed starlight, leaving only a jagged silhouette against the

  starfield. Protrusions of assault blasters and sensor antennas stuck out

  like

  spines.

  A burst of static came across Terpfen's comm system; then the tight-beam

  holotransmission of Ambassador Furgan's head focused itself inside the

  B-wing

  cockpit.

  "Well, my little fish," Furgan said. His huge eyebrows looked like black

  feathers curling up on his forehead. "What is your report? Explain why our

  two

  victims were not killed in the crash you engineered."

  Terpfen tried to stop the words from coming, but the organic circuits

  kicked in, providing all the answer the Imperial ambassador needed. "I

  sabotaged Ackbar's personal ship, and that should have meant death for both

  passengers--but even I underestimated Ackbar's skill as a pilot."

  Furgan scowled. "So the mission failed."

  "On the contrary," Terpfen said, "I believe it is even more successful.

  The New Republic is far more affected by this chain of events than it would

  be

  if a simple crash had killed the Minister of State and the admiral. Their

  fleet commander has now resigned in disgrace, and the ruling Council is left

  without an obvious replacement."

  Furgan considered for a moment, then nodded as a slow smile spread across

  his fat, dark lips. He changed the subject. "Have you made any progress in

  uncovering the location of the third Jedi baby?"

  During his torturous conditioning, Terpfen had spent four weeks with his

  head entirely encased in a solid plasteel helmet that kept him blinded, sent

  jabs of pain at random and malicious intervals. He could not speak or drink

  or

  eat, fed entirely through intravenous nutritional supplements. Now, as he

  sat

  trapped inside the cockpit of the B-wing fighter, he felt swallowed up in

  that

  black pit again.

  Terpfen answered in a steady, uninflected voice. "I have told you before,

  Ambassador. Anakin Solo is being held on a secret planet, the location of

  which is known only to a very few, including Admiral Ackbar and the Jedi

  Master Luke Skywalker. I think it highly unlikely that Ackbar will divulge

  it

  in casual conversation."

  Furgan looked as if he had just bit into something sour and wanted to

  spit it out. "Then what good are you?"

  Te rpfen would have taken no offense even if his organic circuitry had

  allowed him to. "I have set into motion another plan that may provide the

  information you seek."

  Terpfen had performed the task with parts of his mind he did not own.

  Flipper-hands moving not of his own volition had completed what the rest of

  him wanted to scream against.

  "Your plan had better work," Furgan said. "And one last question--I've

  noticed that Mon Mothma has avoided public appearances for several weeks.

  She

  has not attended many important meetings, sending proxies instead. Tell me,

  how is dear Mon Mothma's health?" He began to chuckle.

  "Failing," Terpfen said, cursing himself. The laughter in Furgan's face

  suddenly vanished, and his holographic eyes stared into Terpfen's great

  watery

  disks.

  "Go back to Coruscant, my little fish, before they notice you've

  disappeared. We wouldn't want to lose you, when there is so much work left

  to

  do."

  Furgan's transmission winked out. A moment later the beetlelike ship

  turned and, with a blue-white flare of its hyperdrive engines, burst into a

  fold of space and vanished.

  Terpfen hung alone in the darkness, looking out at the glowing slash of

  the Cron Drift, surrounded by the echoing walls of his own betrayal.

  Bearing only a dim glowlamp, Luke Skywalker led a p
rocession of his Jedi

  students deep into the lower levels of the Massassi temple. Dressed in

  hooded

  robes, none of them voiced objections to Luke's nighttime journey; by now

  they

  had grown accustomed to his eccentric training methods.

  Luke noted the cold, smooth stone against his bare feet, then dismissed

  the sensation. A Jedi must be aware of his environment, but must not let it

  affect him in ways he does not desire. Luke repeated the phrase to himself,

  focusing on the state of perfect control he had learned only gradually

  through

  the teachings of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and his own exercises of self-

  discovery.

  He initially noted the silence of the temple, then scolded himself as he

  broadened his perceptions. The Great Temple was not silent The stone blocks

  ticked and trembled as they cooled in the deepening night. Air currents

  danced

  in faint breaths, slow-motion rivers through the enclosed passageways. Tiny,

  sharp-footed arachnids clicked across the floors and walls. Dust settled.

  Luke led his group down the flagstoned steps until he stood facing a

  blank stone wall. He waited.

  Dark-haired Gantoris was the first to notice a tenuous wisp of pale mist

  through a flaw in the rock. "I see steam."

  "I smell sulfur," Kam Solusar said.

  "Good," Luke said. He worked the secret panel that slid aside the stone

  door to a maze of sunken and half-collapsed passages. The tunnel sloped

  down,

  and the students followed as he ducked into the deeper shadows. His glowlamp

  spilled a flickering pool of light in a faint, washed-out circle. His own

  shadow looked like a hooded monster, a distortion of Darth Vader's black

  form

  against the cramped walls.

  The underground passage hooked to the left, and now Luke could smell

  bright and sharp brimstone fumes; the lumpy rock wept condensed moisture. In

  a

  moment he could hear the simmering of water, the whisper of steam, the stone

  sighing with escaping heat.

  Luke emerged into the grotto and paused to draw a deep breath of the

  acrid air. The stone felt slick beneath the soles of his feet, warm and wet.

  The other trainees joined him, looking down at a roughly circular mineral

  spring. Pearllike chains of bubbles laced the clear water as volcanic gases

  seeped through the rocks. Steam rose from the pool's surface, twisting in

  stray air currents. The water reflected the glowlamp with a jewel-blue color

  from algae clinging to the sides. Ledges of stone and crusted mineral

  deposits

  made footholds and shallow seats on the walls of the hot spring.

  "This is our destination," Luke said, then switched off the glowlamp.

  The underground darkness swallowed them, but only for a moment. Luke

  heard two trainees draw in deep breaths--Streen and Dorsk 81--2 the others

  managed to restrain their surprise.

  Luke stared into the blackness, willing it to peel back. Gradually light

  did filter back, a distant gleam of reflected starlight from an opening in

  the

  ceiling high above.

  "This is an exercise to help you concentrate and attune yourself to the

  Force," Luke said. "The water is a perfect temperature you will float, you

  will drift, you will reach out and touch the rest of the universe."

  He shed his Jedi robe in the near darkness and slipped without a splash

  into the spring. He heard the rustle of cloth as the others disrobed and

  moved

  toward the edge.

  The water's sudden heat stung his skin, and the foam of rising bubbles

  tingled against him. Ripples traversed the pool as the Jedi candidates slid

  in

  one at a time. He sensed them floating, relaxing, allowing themselves to

  gasp

  with pleasure and warmth.

  Luke drew slow, deep breaths as he lay back, drifting, purging his mind

  and body. The bite of sulfur in the air scrubbed his throat raw and clean;

  the

  heat and bubbles opened his pores.

  "There is no emotion; there is peace," he said, echoing words from the

  Jedi Code that Yoda had taught him. "There is no ignorance; there is

  knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there

  is

  the Force."

  He heard mingling voices as the twelve others repeated his words. But

  this was too formal for him, too stiff and stilted--he wanted them to

  understand him, not memorize mantras. "Right now you are floating in warmth,

  in near darkness. Imagine yourvs totally immersed, surrounded, free. Let

  your

  minds wander of their own accord, travel along the ripples in the Force."

  He swirled his hands, gently stroking back and forth to generate waves in

  the pool. The other students stirred. He could sense them around him,

  concentrating, trying too hard.

  "Look up," he said. "First you must find the place where you are before

  you can journey elsewhere."

  Overhead, high up in the rocky ceiling, a slash of stars spilled through

  a crack. The pinpoints winked and shimmered with currents in Yavin 4's

  atmosphere.

  "Feel the Force," he said in a whisper, then repeated the words with

  greater strength. "Feel the Force. You are part of it. You can travel with

  the

  Force, down into the core of this moon, and out into the stars. Every living

  thing strengthens the Force, and everything draws strength from it.

  Concentrate with me and observe the limitless vistas your skills will show

  you."

  Drifting in the warm water, feeling the fizz of bubbles against his skin,

  Luke looked up at the confined patch of stars through the broken ceiling,

  then

  looked back down to the darkened pool. "Can you see it?" he said.

  The bottom of the pool flickered, opening a gateway to the universe. He

  saw the glory of stars, arms of the galaxy, stars exploding in titanic death

  throes, nebulae coalescing in a blazing wash of birth.

  He heard unbridled gasps as the Jedi candidates saw the same vision. They

  each seemed to be a self-contained form hovering over the universe, where

  they

  could get the ultimate perspective, a true view from a height.

  Luke felt the wonder pulsing through him as he identified Coruscant and

  the Emperor's Core worlds. He saw the embattled systems where tattered

  Imperial remnants fought each other in civil warfare; he saw the empty

  systems

  that had once been controlled by the Ssi Ruuk Imperium, until they had been

  defeated by the combined Empire and Rebel forces at Bakura. Luke recognized

  and named planets he had known, Tatooine, Bespin, Hoth, Endor, Dathomir, and

  many others--including the secret world of Anoth, where he and Admiral

  Ackbar

  had hidden Han and Leia's third baby.

  But then the names and coordinates of the planets soured in his mind, and

  Luke scolded himself for thinking like a tactician, like a starship pilot.

  Names meant nothing, positions meant nothing. Every world and every star was

  a

  part of the whole of the galaxy, as were Luke and his trainees at the Jedi

  praxe
um. As were the plants and creatures in the jungle above--

  His attuned senses picked up a change deep within the subterranean

  chambers, sleeping volcanic outlets that provided geothermal heat to the

  mineral spring. Somewhere deep in the crust of Yavin 4, a bubble had burst,

  spewing hot gases upward, simmering through cracks in the rock, rising,

  seeking an escape route. Coming toward them.

  A dark rift appeared in the image of the galaxy below them. With a sudden

  wave of alarm, four of the Jedi trainees sloshed in the warm water,

  attempting

  to reach the edge. Others clenched themselves in panic.

  Luke fought down his own fear and made his voice rich and forceful, as he

  had once tried to sound when negotiating with Jabba the Hutt. His words came

  out rapidly, filling the remaining seconds.

  "A Jedi feels no heat or cold. A Jedi can extinguish pain. Strengthen

  yourvs with the Force!" Luke thought of the time he had walked across lava

  in

  one of the tests Gantoris had imposed upon him. He willed extra protection

  into his body, forming an imaginary sheath around his exposed skin, thin as

  a

  thought and strong as a thought.

  He scanned the concerned faces in a flash, saw Kirana Ti close her green

  eyes and grit her teeth; middle-aged Kam Solusar stared at nothing, yet

  maintained a confident air; Streen, the Bespin cloud hermit, seemed not to

  understand, but he instinctively increased his protection.

  As t he large, shifting bubbles boiled to the surface, Dorsk 81, the

  yellow-skinned clone from the bureaucratic planet, scrambled toward the

  edge.

  Luke saw that he would never make it in time; unless Dorsk 81 set up his

  personal defenses in the next few seconds, he would be boiled as the hot gas

  escaped into the air.

  Before Luke could move, Gantoris reached Dorsk 81, gripping the alien's

  naked shoulder with his callused hand. "Ride it with me!" Gantoris said,

  raising his voice above the hissing noise. Volcanic gas bubbles surged to

  the

  surface of the hot spring. Luke saw a wall of protection surround Gantoris

  and

  Dorsk 81, incredibly strong--and then the primal, potent gases belched

  around

  them, churning the water into a foaming fury.

  Luke felt the stab of intense heat, but he willed it away. He could feel

  the strength grow as the candidates also understood and reinforced each

  other.

  The scalding onslaught lasted only a few seconds, and the boiling surface of