Part 4 (1/2)

She would spend all day, many days at a time, simply contemplating the Force and her place in the universe. @ees remained alive for a long time and did not rush into ill-considered action; yet at times such as this, she could manage to move fast enough.

She understood the importance of protecting the Jedi academy.

She had entered into her training to understand the Force, vowing to defend the side of light-and here she found herself in a clear-cut battle against the Shadow Academy. Dark Jedi enemies coursed through the jungle, searching for victims, but Master Skywalker had taught all the trainees well. The light-side students would put up a good fight.

The treelike Jedi stood motionless, watching, sensing the jungle... and she knew her enemies would come to her. She had only to wait. Her roots dug deeper into the soil, drawing on it for greater energy. She felt the sap pulsing through her, boiling in her veins, allowing her to gain the speed for the unwavering action that she would require just this once...

she hoped.

She had chosen her spot well, next to an ailing Ma.s.sa.s.si tree, tall with outspreading branches. Its trunk was nested with vines and dripping with parasitic shelf mushrooms that had tapped into its heartwood and begun devouring the great tree from within.

The Jedi could tell that this great-grandfather of a tree had lived for centuries and centuries.... It was the way of things, the cycle of the forest. As plants grew, they went to seed to bear their young, and then slowly decayed to warm organic matter and fertilized the forest for subsequent generations.

She saw how the old Ma.s.sa.s.si tree leaned, observed the surrounding jungle... waited.

She reached out with the Force subtly, gently, so that even the adepts of the Dark Side would not know they were being manipulated. ”Come here,”

she thought, broadcasting it over and over again. At least one of them would catch the hint. They would think they had detected one of their lightside enemies-but it would be all the plant Jedi's doing.

After an indeterminate period-she did not measure time in small incrementsshe sensed a clumsy disturbance: two attackers from the Shadow Academy storming through the forest, as if the delicate ecosystem was no more than a nuisance that they would eradicate completely, given the chance.

The Jedi waited. She had to concentrate.

She had to act at the right moment and not waste time thinking, or else her opportunity would pa.s.s.

Curled within one of her gnarled branchesa handlike appendage-was a k.n.o.bby lightsaber built to accommodate her wooden grip.

The two Dark Jedi came into the clearing and stopped. ”I see nothing here,” said one.

”Lord Brakiss would be ashamed of you.”

Lord Zekk would take away your lightsaber.

”The powers of the dark side are wasted on you.”

”I tell you, I sensed it,” said the other. He stepped forward, looking from side to side, studying the quiet jungle. His companion stood next to him, scowling.

At that moment the Jedi used all her stored reserves-and acted. She ignited the lightsaber and slashed sideways with her branch arm, like a bent sapling suddenly released to snap straight again.

”I am sorry, Grandfather Tree,” she said-and her lightsaber blade cleaved through the trunk of the tottering old Ma.s.sa.s.si tree, severing it from the stump and letting the arms of gravity embrace it. Its wide-branched top leaned over and the tree crashed onto the two Dark Jedi intruders.

They had time only to look up with a m.u.f.fled outcry of surprise as a meteor of branches and vines smashed down upon them.

The Jedi deactivated her lightsaber, then felt a trembling through her entire wooden body. In one act, she had drained months and months of her energy reserves. She stretched her branches up toward the sunlight, dug her roots deeper.

It would take her a long time to recover from this day.

AFTER CROSSING THE river, Jaina fought her way through the jungle, seeking a suitable path through the thickest underbrush while keeping herself hidden from other attackers. Right now, the tangled forest was her ally, and she could use the cover to her advantage. She wasn't afraid to combat the Dark Jedi threatening the academy-but she had a vital mission in mind... something more to her tastes.

As long as the defensive energy s.h.i.+elds remained down and the generator damaged, the entire area was vulnerable to repeated attacks from the skies. Luke Skywalker's trainees were defending themselves... but if Jaina could somehow repair the s.h.i.+eld generator and get the protective force field up again, the new Jedi Knights could take care of these audacious enemies one at a time.

Jaina finally made her way to the clearing where her father and Chewbacca had recently installed the new energy s.h.i.+eld generator. With only a glance she saw that the machinery was irreparable, despite her usual knack for fixing things.

Normally, she could make temporary repairs to get systems up and running again, at least for a while. But not in this case. An Imperial saboteur had used thermal detonators to wipe out the entire generating station.

It was hopelessly ruined, a pile of shrapnel; no simple fixup would do.

Jaina's attention remained on the generator for only a moment, however.

She caught her breath.

There in the clearing sat an Imperial TIE fighter in perfect condition.

Ever since Chewbacca had given Lowie the T-23 skyhopper, Jaina had longed for a vehicle of her own. That, in fact, had been the impetus behind her desire to repair the crashed TIE fighter the young Jedi Knights had found in the jungles-Qorl's TIE fighter.

She stopped and stared, frozen with excitement and apprehension. But other than the m.u.f.fled noises of battle in the jungles and the distant shouts and blaster fire near the Great Temple, she heard no sound.

Jaina withdrew her lightsaber and pressed the power stud. The beam sprang outward, ^ glowing an electric violet. Then she crept forward stealthily, ready to fight if the TIE pilot emerged with his blaster drawn. But she sensed no one else around, heard no noise from the craft.

”h.e.l.lo?” Jaina called. ”You'd better surrender if you're an Imperial!”

She waited.

”Uh, is anyone here?”

Only the simmering jungle noises answered her.

Moving forward, letting her eagerness take over, she ran to the abandoned TIE fighter. It was a sinister-looking s.h.i.+p: a rounded c.o.c.kpit suspended between two flat hexagonal power arrays, twin ion engines that would propel the small fighter across s.p.a.ce, a bank of deadly laser cannons.

Ideas and possibilities thundered through her mind. If she could pilot this s.h.i.+p into the enemy's midst, Jaina would be in disguise. She could slip in among them, and they wouldn't know she was actually an enemy...

until it was too late.

Switching off her lightsaber again, Jaina opened the c.o.c.kpit hatch and crawled inside. She had studied how TIE fighters worked when she and her friends had replaced the components of Qorl's crashed s.h.i.+p. She knew the b.u.t.tons on the control panels, knew how the systems activated.

Though the exiled old pilot had flown off in his s.h.i.+p before Jaina had had a chance to take it on a flight, she was confident she could handle the craft.

She settled into the pilot's seat, noting the oily scent of stale lubricants and the sour odors the Empire did not bother to remove.

A rebreather mask hung next to a small life-support console. The c.o.c.kpit walls closed around her like a protective sh.e.l.l, giving her little room to move, but all the controls were at her fingertips. Through the s.h.i.+p's front ports, she could see outside.

Jaina found the power switch and toggled it on, felt the engines'

thrumming, systems gearing up, batteries charging. Control panel lights winked on in a brilliant flurry around her. She drew a deep breath, strapped herself in, and clutched the controls.

”All systems ready for takeoff,” she whispered to herself She glanced at the sky, looking for the black specks of other Imperial s.h.i.+ps. ”Okay, TIE fighters, prepare for some company!” The Imperial craft raised up as Jaina worked the controls. Clearing the jungle treetops, she felt the exhilaration of actually flying. The s.h.i.+p seemed unbelievably quiet inside, until she realized that its noisier primary engines had been disengaged. This TIE fighter flew so quietly because it used only the lesser-powered engines. So that was how the enemy pilot had gotten under their s.h.i.+eld unnoticed! No doubt the original systems remained intact, but the enemy commando had slipped in without the @@ami iar howl of TIE engines.

All right then, Jaina thought-she could be silent and deadly as well.