Lowie could tell by the blond-haired boy’s tone of voice that he was none too pleased to be stuffed unceremoniously into the cramped rear seat, with his brightly colored robes tangled about him. Raynar’s parents had once been minor royalty on Alderaan, before that planet was destroyed by the Death Star, and now they had made themselves into wealthy merchants. He was not accustomed to taking a backseat to anyone.
“No, Raynar,” Tionne chided. The silvery-haired Jedi teacher blinked her alien mother-of-pearl eyes. “No one does as well alone against an enemy, and we must all work together to prepare. Without preparation, a battle is all but lost.”
Raynar snorted, trying to straighten his robes. “Battle? We don’t even know there’s going to be a battle. Why should we believe the word of some traitor boy who’s gone over to the dark side? He could just be lying to get us all worked up. He’s probably laughing at us right now.”
Lowie’s growls rumbled louder than the engine of the T-23. “Master Lowbacca wishes to point out,” Em Teedee said, “that for many years Zekk was a close friend to Master Jacen and Mistress Jaina.”
Raynar pouted. “Then Jacen and Jaina Solo need to be more careful about the friends they choose.”
“Sometimes,” Tionne said in a firm voice, “the gap between friend and enemy is not as wide as you may think. Help often comes from unexpected sources.”
Lowie wasn’t sure why, but senses in the back of his mind urged him to go faster still. The small skyhopper shuddered and dipped as he pushed its engines to their limits, and then beyond. He flew in among the trees, below the deadly dome of the energy shield that protected the Jedi academy against an attack from the skies.
“Hey, watch out for that big branch!” Raynar yelped as Lowie swerved to one side. “Save the heroics for when the Shadow Academy shows up—if they come, that is.” Lowie was pleased to sense, though, that Tionne not only remained calm, but actually approved of the way he piloted the little T-23.
Lowie looked up into the sky and understood why he had felt the sudden need to accelerate. He gave a sharp bark, pointing up at the ominous spiked ring shape barely visible as a silhouette through the film of the atmosphere. “Master Lowbacca says—oh dear!—it seems that the Shadow Academy has arrived!”
Raynar fell silent, finding nothing more to criticize about Lowie’s piloting. Before long, a blade of piercing sound sliced through the silence, followed by several explosions. According to Lowie’s sensors, the flickering energy shield above had failed. He growled out the news.
Without waiting for a translation, Tionne said, “We can still return to the Jedi academy, but we should leave the T-23 at the edge of the jungle. I have a feeling it’s not safe to approach the temple landing field or the hangar bay. It’s bound to be under attack.” She sat up straight between the two young Jedi trainees. “It has already begun.”
The Great Temple of the Massassi had stood nearly unchanged for thousands of years. The stone blocks in the walls and floors were as solid as they had been the day they were assembled. Even so, Jaina felt a vibration in the floor of the Jedi academy’s control center. Warning lights flashed across the shield generator console.
“Something’s wrong, Uncle Luke,” Jaina said. “There’s been an explosion out in the jungle … oh no! Our defensive shields are down!”
Luke stood behind the chair where Jacen sat at the communications controls. He nodded grimly to Jaina. “Can you get the shields back on line from here?”
She frantically flicked switches and checked connections, trying to bring the shields back up. She scanned the display screens and diagnostics, continually pushing buttons. “Don’t think so,” she replied. “Power’s out. The entire generator might be gone.”
Her brother Jacen blew out his breath and pushed back from the comm console. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he said, running fingers through his tousled brown curls. “I’ll bet it’s sabotage.”
Luke caught Jaina’s eyes, then Jacen’s, and came to a decision. “I’m calling an all-hands meeting in five minutes. We may need to clear out the Great Temple, go into hiding in the jungles where we can deflect the assault. Send a message to your mother that we’re under attack now and need those reinforcements right away. Then meet me in the grand audience chamber.”
Jacen looked at his sister in a state of near panic. “My animals …” he said. “I can’t leave them in their cages if the Jedi academy’s under attack. They’ll stand a better chance of surviving if they’re free. And if Uncle Luke’s going to evacuate all of the students—”
“Go ahead,” Jaina said, waving him away. “Take care of your pets. I’ll get a message to Mom.”
Already running for the door, Jacen tossed a “thank you” over his shoulder.
Jaina plopped down at the comm station, selected a transmission frequency, and tried to make a connection to Coruscant. She received no response, only dead static. With a sigh of disgust over the erratic behavior of the old equipment, Jaina tried a new frequency.
Still nothing.
Odd, she thought. Maybe the main comm screen wasn’t working. She donned the headset and selected yet another frequency.
Static. She switched again. Stronger static, as if something had swallowed up her desperate signal. Soon the crackling hiss built to a crescendo squeal loud enough to set her teeth on edge. Jaina snatched the headset off her ears and tossed it down with a shudder.
“We’re being jammed!”
Jaina checked the readouts on the communications console just to be sure. Their long-range transmissions were being blocked by the Shadow Academy.
She had to let Luke know right away.
In his chambers inside the ancient temple, Jacen lifted the latches and slid aside the doors to each cage that held his menagerie of unusual pets. He could see that Tionne had kept them well fed while he was gone on Kashyyyk. The near-invisible crystal snake with its iridescent scales glittered with languid satisfaction, but the family of purple jumping spiders in the adjoining cage bounced up and down in agitation.
“It’s all right,” Jacen sent the message with his mind. “Be calm. You’ll be safe if you get to the jungle. Just get into the jungle.”
One cage rattled with two clamoring stintarils, tree-dwelling rodents with protruding eyes and long jaws filled with sharp teeth. In another damp enclosure tiny swimming crabs peeked out of their mud nests. Pinkish mucous salamanders slid out of their water bowl, gradually taking a distinct form. Iridescent blue piranha-beetles swarmed against the tough wires of their cage, chewing and eager to be free.
He turned them loose one by one, carrying them to the window as carefully as he could, moving with a controlled urgency. Jacen had just set the last of his creatures free—his favorite, a stump lizard—when he heard a loud Wookiee roar, followed by the voice of Em Teedee.
“Oh, thank goodness, we’re not alone in the temple after all.”
Jacen turned to find Lowie, Em Teedee, Tionne, and Raynar standing in his doorway.
“Did the others leave without us?” Raynar asked with a look of forlorn worry on his face.
“Everyone’s up in the grand audience chamber,” Jacen said. “We need to get there as quickly as possible. Master Skywalker’s giving his final instructions before the battle begins.”
When the group stepped out of the turbolift into the grand audience chamber, Jaina was already there talking in a low voice with Luke and Tenel Ka while the other students sat in frightened silence.
A look of relief washed over Luke’s face when he saw that Lowie had returned successfully from his mission. Tionne stretched out her hand toward Luke, and he gave it a brief squeeze.