Jedi Prince_ Prophets Of The Dark Side Part 3

"Ftwiiiiing ChEEEpz!"

"You're right, Artoo," Threepio said. "That s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p appears to be an Imperial command speeder. And that tower down there-why, I didn't notice it before-it may actually be a small Imperial sentry outpost!"

The Imperial command speeder landed near the small Imperial outpost. No sooner had the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p set down than five Imperial stormtroopers stepped outside, bringing with them the prisoner who was to serve as a sentry on this miserable planet: Grand Moff Muzzer. It didn't take long for them to detect the presence of other humans nearby, and at once, two of the stormtroopers set out to look for them.

Hiding behind a tall mushroom near the top of the embankment, See-Threepio and Artoo-Detoo watched. Still trying to free his ankle from the tentacle-bush, Chewbacca looked down the hill to see what was happening also.

"Wooooofff!" Chewbacca barked.

"Tweeeez Bdoooopz!" Artoo beeped, anxiously rotating his entire body as his tiny radar reflector popped up from his dome.

"Artoo is quite right, Chewbacca," Threepio said in a soft voice.. "Shshshshhhh-you've got to be quiet, or else those stormtroopers will discover us, too."

At the bottom of the embankment, the stormtroopers were boasting to one another about their discovery of two humans trapped in arachnor webs.

"Well, if it isn't Commander Skywalker. Quite a catch!" the leader of the stormtroopers said. "This should be worth a big promotion!"

Luke tried once again to reach his lightsaber, but he was so tangled in the sticky web, it was hopeless.

One of the stormtroopers removed a small stun-beam pistol from his utility belt. "This should keep you both under control until Kadann gets to talk to you," the stormtrooper said. He fired, targeting both of the Rebel Alliance prisoners.

The stun-beam had precisely the expected effect. Luke and Ken were rendered half unconscious, barely able to move or think at all, let alone concentrate on the Force.

Then the Imperials turned their pulse-ma.s.s generator on the arachnor webs, melting the webs completely. Without the support of the webs to hold them up, Luke and Ken both tumbled to the ground, scarcely able to bend their limbs because of the effects of the stun-beam.

Luke and Ken were quickly overpowered. Their hands were pulled behind their backs and fastened with Imperial locking wrist-cuffs. Then a stormtrooper s.n.a.t.c.hed Luke's lightsaber as a souvenir to present to Kadann, plucking it from the ground where Luke had dropped it.

The Imperial turned the lightsaber on, gleefully watching its green, glowing blade.

The stormtroopers forced Luke and Ken to their feet, pus.h.i.+ng them along. The prisoners'

stunned legs could barely move, but they were forced to march all the way to the Imperial command speeder.

"Oh my, oh no!" Threepio said, still watching from a safe distance away. "We need a plan, a plan at once! This situation has gotten quite out of hand for the likes of two droids and a Wookiee!"

The Imperial command speeder blasted off, leaving the mushroom planet. The destination of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was a huge golden craft beyond Tiki-hava: the Scardia Voyager.

Aboard the Scardia Voyager, Kadann sat in his upraised chair on the navigation deck. He peered out into the darkness of s.p.a.ce, calmly observing the approach of the 'Imperial command speeder. High Prophet Jedgar and Prophet Gornash stood on either side of him.

No sooner did the command speeder dock aboard the Scardia Voyager than two new prisoners were brought before Kadann in chains. As the Supreme Prophet realized who the prisoners were, he smiled with a dark glee of vengeance.

"It would appear that your days of fighting for the Rebel Alliance have at last come to an end, Skywalker," Kadann proclaimed wickedly. He arose from his chair and approached the prisoners.

Luke pulled at the Imperial wrist-cuffs, trying to use Jedi powers to unfasten them. But it was to no avail. He was still too stunned to concentrate and use the Force.

"Is there a problem, Skywalker?" Kadann inquired. "Surely you didn't think your foolhardy Rebel heroics would go on forever, did you? And you-" Kadann turned to Ken and noticed that he was s.h.i.+vering. "Is it too cold for you in the Scardia Voyager? Perhaps you'd care for a cup of hot tea."

Kadann poured a cup of tea from the steaming kettle on the stand beside him. Beside the kettle was a tray of biscuits. "Here, this should warm you up."

Though Luke was still groggy, he was awake enough to warn Ken not to drink the tea Kadann was offering him. "Don't do it," Luke cautioned. "It might contain avabush, and-"

But before Luke even finished his sentence, Ken swallowed several gulps of tea from the cup Kadann held up to his lips. Then he glanced at Commander Skywalker. "Sorry, Luke," Ken said. "I was freezing-I couldn't help it. I'm much warmer now."

"Commander Skywalker objects," Kadann said, "because he suspects that this is avabush tea, made from avabush spice, a truth serum of sorts. But surely you don't think that I would do such a thing as give a boy truth serum, do you? I think your friend Luke Skywalker is jealous of the freedom I can offer you, young man," Kadann continued. "He knows that his Jedi powers are no match for the powers of the Dark Side."

"Jedi powers are more than a match for any powers you can claim, Kadann," Luke retorted.

Narrowing his gaze to a mere slit, Kadann spied the dome-shaped crystal birthstone that Ken wore around his neck on a silver chain. "Don't you think it's time we introduced ourselves?" Kadann said. "Tell me your name."

Ken was determined to give a false name. But just as he was trying to think one up, he blurted out, "They call me Ken." And then his mouth dropped open; he was surprised at himself for not being able to follow his own plan.

"And tell me, who are your parents, Ken?" Kadann demanded. "That is, if you even know."

The Supreme Prophet gave an evil grin.

"I never knew my parents," Ken replied. "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you their names."

"So that's your att.i.tude, is it?" Kadann said sarcastically. "You still find it within you to resist-at least for the moment. But give it time, give it time ..."

Kadann looked into Ken's eyes with a hypnotic stare, knitting his dark eyebrows together.

"Now I'll ask you again. What do you know of your parents?"

"I-I think maybe my name Ken comes from Ken.o.bi," he replied. "I think I may be the son of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi, but I can't prove it."

Kadann cleared his throat. "So that's what you think, is it? Quite a fantasy-that you might turn out to be a mysterious son of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. You who grew up deep underground, raised by droids in the Lost City of the Jedi. And you probably think that's why they call you a Jedi Prince?" Kadann laughed a bitter laugh. "It might interest you to know that that's where we're heading-to the fourth moon of Yavin, and then to Lost City."

"You'll never find it without our help," Luke interrupted. "And we'll never help you."

"You've already helped me, Skywalker," Kadann said with a sneer. "You took Triclops to SPIN headquarters, and he found the coordinates of the Lost City in one of your files. You didn't know that Triclops was an Imperial mole -- one of our spies planted within your beloved Alliance. He's been in frequent communication with us, thanks to one of these-"

Kadann held up a small round device, an implant like the one the Empire had inserted in Triclops's molar.

Luke and Ken exchanged a knowing glance. Was the plan working? Triclops had provided Kadann with disinformation about the location of the Lost City. However, it certainly appeared that Kadann believed the false coordinates to be accurate.

Luke and Ken were then led by the Imperials down a long hallway. Soon they reached an observation room with a huge window. There they were to remain under armed guard, and under the close, watchful gaze of several of the Imperial prophets.

Luke tried to concentrate on the Force. He realized that, using the power of the Jedi, he might be able to free his hands by moving the tumblers of the lock that held his wrists fastened behind his back. But try as he might, Luke was still unable to put himself in tune with the Force. His mind was cloudy, and his arms and legs still tingled from the effects of the stun-beam.

Soon the Imperial s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was hovering over Yavin Four, close to the location of the decoy entrance to the Lost City. Kadann entered the observation room. He then turned to High Prophet Jedgar and said, "It has occurred to me, Jedgar, that the information about how to find the Lost City came to me rather easily-suspiciously easily, I now realize. I'm going to send some stormtroopers into the jungle first. They're to fly in a command speeder, taking Grand Moff Hissa with them."

"Certainly, Kadann," Jedgar replied.

"Hissa should be the first to descend in the tubular transport to the Lost City," Kadann continued. "If this is a trick and he dies, nothing is lost, since he's been sentenced to death anyway."

Luke and Ken watched on a remote viewing screen. They saw stormtroopers take Grand Moff Hissa, who was still chained to his hover-chair, into the Imperial command speeder. They then descended to the jungle and landed. The screen showed Hissa being removed from the smaller s.p.a.cecraft. His face wore a bitter scowl, the look of a soldier who had long served the Empire and now felt betrayed by the new Imperial leader.

The landing party continued until they reached the circular green marble wall. The door of the tubular transport opened, and the stormtroopers put Grand Moff Hissa, who was chained so that he could not escape, inside the transport. Then they programmed the controls for it to descend.

Kadann's inquisitive eyes were fixed on the screen too. He could see the tubular transport traveling deep underground.

Then the transport came to a stop. Hissa's chair, which had been designed to float only a few feet above the ground, went out of control as he steered it through the tubular transport door and over a gigantic hole. Hissa plunged, tumbling treacherously toward the volcanic river below. When he struck the flaming lava, he bobbed up and down, baked by the deadly molten sea.

"No, Kadann, noooooo!" Hissa screamed. But soon he melted into the fiery underground stream, and his charred remains sunk to its depths.

"So!" Kadann said with quiet fury. "The information I received from Triclops was a trick after all. You fed him false data, Luke Skywalker, hoping that it would lead me to my doom." Kadann bared his teeth and grunted. "Skywalker, you shall be the next to go down in that tubular transport to meet your death-that is, unless the Jedi Prince here cooperates and decides to tell me how to find the real entrance to the Lost City of the Jedi!"

"Don't help him, Ken," Luke said. "He's going to kill us anyway."

"Not true," Kadann retorted. "If you cooperate, Ken, you have my word that I'll set you both loose on the ice-world of Hoth. You'll have a sporting chance to survive. And the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side never breaks his word of honor."

"Listen to what I'm telling you, Ken!" Luke said firmly. "Whatever happens, don't help Kadann! Remember his prophecy: 'When the Jedi Knight becomes a captive of Scardia, then shall the Jedi Prince betray the Lost City.'

Kadann reached forward and touched Ken's birthstone. "I think you're about to join us, Ken," Kadann said. Then he turned toward the tall, dark prophet at his side. "Jedgar, take Luke Skywalker away!"

Kadann's order was promptly obeyed by Jedgar and several stormtroopers. Ken craned his neck to catch a last glimpse of Luke being led through a doorway and down a long corridor.

Luke refused to be led away without a fight, though he had nothing to fight with but his feet. He leaped and kicked a stormtrooper in the helmet, knocking him over. Then he tried the 'same tactic on High Prophet Jedgar, but the tall prophet caught Luke's boot before it struck him. Jedgar twisted it and sent the Jedi Knight plunging to the cold, hard floor.

Ken winced. Luke was in dire peril, and there was nothing Ken could do to help him.

Kadann slowly walked over to a case filled with valuable ornaments and relics. Opening the case, he removed a small piece of crystal, a half sphere.

At Kadann's request, Ken's hands were freed. Then Kadann offered Ken the piece of crystal he had removed from the case. "This is the other half of your birthstone," Kadann explained. "I got it from your father. It fits with the piece around your neck."

Ken quickly discovered that the two pieces fit together perfectly. His mouth fell open in astonishment, and his mind was filled with wonder. How was this possible? Why would Kadann have the other half of his birthstone?

"I know all the secrets of your life that are unknown to you, Ken," Kadann said. "I know who brought you to the Lost City of the Jedi. And I know who your father is-and your grandfather. When you take me to the Lost City, Ken, I shall reveal to you everything about who you are. For the first time in your life, young Jedi Prince, you'll have the chance to learn where you came from-and your destiny!"

CHAPTER 6.

Ken's Destiny The temptation for Ken to cooperate with Kadann was becoming slowly overwhelming. Due to the few gulps of avabush spice tea Ken had swallowed, his judgment and his thinking were not as clear as they ordinarily were.

"You will tell me the location of the Lost City, Ken," Kadann said, staring at the boy intensely. Ken slowly felt his hatred of Kadann weakening, melting away.

Ken seriously considered telling Kadann what he wanted to know, because then Ken would learn the secrets about his origins-secrets that Dee-Jay and the other droids of the Lost City had always refused to reveal to him. Also, it would mean that Luke's life and his own life would be spared. Kadann had given his word that he would free them on the ice-world of Hoth, if Ken revealed the correct geographical coordinates of the Lost City.

Ken knew that Luke had once braved the bitter, icy weather of Hoth after Han Solo slayed a Taun Taun and covered Luke with its fur. Perhaps Ken and Luke could survive there until they were rescued by the Alliance.

Ken couldn't think straight. Although he knew better, he yielded and gave Kadann the information that the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side sought.

Kadann reacted swiftly. He instantly instructed the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p navigators where to go.

Ken was still in a daze. Soon the Scardia Voyager set down in the Yavin Four rain forest, not far from the site of the tubular transport that led directly underground to the Lost City.

The door of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was flung open. While Luke was kept prisoner aboard the Scardia Voyager on the ground, Ken found himself leading a large group. Following Ken on a route through the forest that Ken knew by heart were Kadann, High Prophet Jedgar, Prophet Gornash, an Imperial intelligence agent who was an expert at computers, and a group of stormtroopers. Kadann had left instructions that if there was any further trickery, Luke Skywalker was to be destroyed at once.

Once the Imperials and Ken were aboard the tubular transport, it descended swiftly, far into the ground.

When its door eventually slid open again, Kadann, realizing that no one could stop him now from reaching his goal, peered out at the cavern of the Lost City. For the first time he viewed with awe the many dome-houses and winding streets filled with caretaker droids at work.

Ken and the Imperials marched down a street made from green marble. When they pa.s.sed Ken's dome-house at 12 South Jedi Lane, where Ken used to live, Zeebo the mooka leaped out of a window and came running up to Ken, jumping into his arms and lapping his face. Ken hugged his furry, feathery pet as hard as he could. Ken then suddenly felt a strange sensation, as though he were just beginning to wake up to what he had done.

"Put the animal down," Kadann commanded.

Zeebo suddenly leaped from Ken's arms and attacked Kadann, snapping and biting at him.

Kadann tossed the mooka to the ground and kicked the alien animal. "Ksssshhhhh," Zeebo moaned, limping away as a stormtrooper followed after him.

"Leave Zeebo alone!" Ken shouted.

But the stormtrooper pulled out a stun-blaster and fired a stun-beam at Ken's pet. Zeebo suddenly became motionless.

"What have you done to him? You monsters!" Ken screamed.

Ken tried to run toward Zeebo, but two stormtroopers stopped him, grabbing Ken by the arms. The Jedi Prince struggled, but they dragged him along, following Kadann in the march over to North Jedi Lane.

When they arrived at the Jedi Library, the forces of Kadann entered the hallowed building.

The hard boots of the stormtroopers stomped across the sleek, s.h.i.+ny floor, leaving behind ugly sc.r.a.pe marks.

Ken's eyes fell upon Dee-Jay, who was seated in a corner of the room near a case containing glittering relics of the Jedi Knights.

"Ken? What-Why did you lead them here?" Dee-Jay asked, his ruby-red eyes s.h.i.+ning as he stared at the boy he had dutifully raised. "Why have you led the Empire to the most sacred place of the Jedi Knights?"

Ken's eyes grew moist as he searched for an answer. "I had to, Dee-Jay! They would have killed Luke if I had refused."

"Silencer Kadann ordered. Then he turned to the tall, ancient droid. "You knew this day would come, didn't you, Dee-Jay?" Kadann said. "You've studied all of my prophecies."

Dee-Jay nodded. "Yes, I studied them. But I concluded that your prophecies about the Lost City of the Jedi had almost no probability of coming true."

Kadann spoke in a faraway-sounding, deep and mystical voice: "When the jedi Knight Becomes a captive of Scardia, Then shall the Jedi Prince Betray the Lost City."

Kadann then turned to the Imperial intelligence agent. "Activate the computer!"

In a moment the computer was on-line, its menu of Jedi lore and knowledge filling the central screen. Kadann spent a few silent moments studying the blueprints of several Rebel Alliance fortresses, including DRAPAC, the Defense Research and Planetary a.s.sistance Center located atop Mount Yoda on the planet Dagobah.

"Your most protected installations shall soon suffer an Imperial a.s.sault-an a.s.sault more powerful and effective than any we have launched against you before," Kadann declared. "It will mean the end of the Rebel Alliance once and for all-in one fiery explosion!" Then Kadann turned to Ken. "And now," he said, "it is time for you to learn the true secret of your parentage."

"Now you'll understand, Ken," Dee-Jay explained, "why all of us droids in this Jedi city believed you should never be told the truth about who you are until you became a grown man-old enough to accept the truth." Dee-Jay's ruby eyes grew dimmer as he fell into silence.

Kadann turned to Ken. "Though you were born with the blood of a Jedi," he explained, "your hunch that Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi is your father is quite mistaken. You are no relation of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. You are named Ken after your mother." Kadann glanced at the intelligence agent, narrowing his eyes to mere slits. "Call up the file on Kendalina."