Part 2 (1/2)

”Better now?” Jaina asked.

”Some better,” Anakin said, pulling his finger out of his mouth.

”Not all better.” He took the actuator in his hand and stood up. He opened the access panel on the broken droid and plugged in the actuator.

He closed the door and looked expectantly at his older brother and sister.

”Done?” Jaina asked.

”Done,” Anakin agreed. ”But i'm not going to push the b.u.t.ton.” He backed well away from the droid, sat down on the floor, and folded his arms.

Jacen looked at his sister.

”Not me,” she said. ”This was your idea.”

Jacen stepped forward to the droid, reached out to push the power b.u.t.ton from as far away as he could, and then stepped hurriedly back.

Once again, the droid shuddered awake, rattling a bit this time as it did so. It pulled its wheels in, lit its panel lights, and made the same triple beep. But then its camera eye viewlens wobbled back and forth, and its panel lights dimmed and flared. It rolled backward just a bit, and then recovered itself.

”Good morning, young mistress and masters,” it said.

”How may I surge you?”

Well, one word wrong, but so what? Jacen grinned and clapped his hands and rubbed them together eagerly. ”Good day, droid,” he said. They had done it! But what to ask for first? ”First tidy up this room,” he said. A simple task, and one that ought to serve as a good test of what this droid could do.

”Certainly, young mister.” The droid rolled toward a bit of jurk on the floor. It extended a work arm to pick it up and then stopped dead.

Its body seemed frozen, its arm locked in place halfway toward the bit of debris.

The one thing it seemed to be able to move was its viewlens. The lens swiveled from one child to the next, Md then stopped on Jacen. ”Oh, dear,” the droid said. ”I seem to have thrun. I am afraid I am goinn-”

The droid's voice cut out abruptly and it started rocking back and forth on its wheels.

”Uh-oh,” Anakin said, scrambling to his feet.

Suddenly the droid's overhead access door blew off and there was a flash of light from its interior. A thin plume of smoke drifted out of the droid. Its panel lights flared again, and then the work arm sagged downward. The droid's body, softened by heat, sagged in on itself and drooped to the floor. The floor and walls and ceilings of the playroom were supposed to be fireproof, but nonetheless the floor under the droid darkened a bit, and the ceiling turned black. The ventilators kicked on high automatically, and drew the smoke out of the room. After a moment they shut themselves off, and the room was silent.

The three children stood, every bit as frozen to the spot as the droid was, absolutely stunned. It was Anakin who recovered first. He walked cautiously toward the droid and looked at it carefully, being sure not to get too close or touch it.

”Really melty now,” he announced, and then wandered off to the other side of the room to play with his blocks.

The twins looked at the droid, and then at each other.

”We're dead,” Jacen announced, surveying the wreckage.

”We didn't mean to break anything,” Jaina protested.

”If we only got in trouble for things we meant to do, we'd never get in trouble,” her brother pointed out. ”Well, hardly ever,” he conceded after a moment. Uncle Luke was very insistent on the subject of honesty, and doubly so on the subject of being honest with yourself.

”Maybe we can blame it on Anakin,” Jaina said. ”We could tell them he did it. After all, he is the one that did it. Sort of.”

Their little brother, already having made a nice stack of blocks, looked up at the twO of them, a little bit worried, a tiny bit startled, yet still a lot calmer than he should have been, under the circ.u.mstances.

But then, even the twins didn't pretend to understand Anakin completely.

”No,” Jacen said. ”We can't tell them. If they knew the kind of stuff Anakin can do, that would spoil everything.” So far as Jacen and Jaina were ooncerned, ”they” and ”them” meant the grown-ups, the opposing team. It was the grown-ups' job to stop Jacen and Jaina, and the twins'

job to outwit the grown-ups. Jacen was enough of a strategist to know that sometimes you had to lose a battle in order to win the war. If they revealed Anakin's abilities, that might protect them for the moment, but the grown-ups would he sure to do something about Anakin, and then where would the twins be? ”We can't let them know about Anakin. Besides, it wasn't his fault. We did make him do it. It'd be no fair getting him in trouble.”

”Yeah,” Jaina said, agreeing reluctantly. ”I guess you're right.

But how do we explain a melted droid?”

Jacen shrugged and prodded the ruined machine with the toe of his shoe. ”I don't think we can, he said.

”I'd sure like to hear you try,” someone said from behind them.

There were very few people who could enter a room without Jacen realizing it, and only one of that number was likely to be anywhere near the Imperial Palace. Even if he had not recognized the voice, Jacen would have known who it had to he, and the knowledge both relieved and mortified him. ”h.e.l.lo, Uncle Luke,” he said as he turned around.

If they were going to be caught, Uncle Luke was probably the best-and worst-grown-up to do the catching.

”h.e.l.lo, Uncle Luke,” said Jaina, her tone no happier than Jacen's.

”Lukie!” Anakin cried out as he jumped up and rushed over to him.

At least someone didn't feel all guilty.

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and Master, hero of a hundred battles and a thousand worlds, champion of justice, loved, revered-and feared-throughout the New Repub lie, knelt down to scoop up a bundle of fast-moving nephew.

Uncle Luke stood again, holding Anakin in one arm as he surveyed the damage. ”Pretty impressive,” he said. ”So what did happen?”

Jacen Solo looked up at his uncle and swallowed nervously. At least it was Uncle Luke, and not Mom or Dador worse, Chewbacca-who had caught them. ”Well, it was my idea,” he said. There was no sense in pointing at your sister and shouting ”She did it! She did it!” when you were talking to an uncle who could sense the truth or falseness of everything you said.

”Uh-huh,” Luke said. ”Somehow I'm not surprised.

But what exactly was the idea?”

”We wanted our own droid,” Jaina said. ”One we could use, without bothering the grown-ups.”

and without getting the grown-ups to give you permission,” Luke said. It was not a question. ”You know you're not allowed to use droids without asking your parents or me or Chewie. And you know why, too. So don't go pretending you” were trying to make a droid to make things easy on us.

”Well, all right,” Jaina conceded. ”That's not why.”

”You were trying to get away with something,” said Uncle Luke. Once again, it was not a question.

”Yes,” Jaina said. Jacen wished she hadn't confessed quite that fast, but she knew as well as he did that trying to tell fibs to Uncle Luke was pointless.

”So. You tell me. Why aren't you allowed to use droids for most things?” Luke asked.

”Because we have to learn to do things on our own.