Jedi Prince_ The Glove Of Darth Vader Part 2

"Tzoooooot gniiiiizba!" Artoo beeped in frustration.

"Calm down, Artoo, there must be some mistake," said Threepio. "We'll find our way."

"Chpeeeeeeez phoooooch!" tooted Artoo.

"Then let's go down to the next street and check that one," replied Threepio, heading south.

"Pchoook ftiiiiz mebutung knuzus.h.!.+" Artoo beeped noisily when they came to the next sign.

Threepio shook his head in dismay. "Slavelord Boulevard. No, this definitely isn't Spice Mines Avenue. It seems that all these streets have been renamed since Mon Mothma got that data."

The two droids wandered along the twisting streets of the city. The boulevards were bustling with stormtroopers and spice transport vehicles went bouncing past. As Threepio and Artoo crossed an avenue, they were almost run over by some Imperial officers who were riding in a landspeeder limousine.

After hours of going around in circles, Threepio and Artoo finally made their way out of the capital city to the very edge of the mountains that were filled with spice mines.

"I wasn't cut out to be a spy," Threepio declared as he finally located a path through the Kesselian trees. "I should go back to working with binary load lifters. That was my first job. I'm still not sure why I left."

"Deeeeewooop broooop!" tooted Artoo. A tiny radar screen popped out of the little droid's head and began swiftly spinning around.

"I certainly hope we get back to Yavin Four," replied Threepio. "Master Luke is going to blow a short circuit when he hears the news about the Emperor's son!"

"Tzoooooch briiiiiiiib!"

"Now what are you beeping about, you hysterical bag of bolts?"

s.h.i.+BOOOOOM!.

Threepio looked up at the pink sky to see an Imperial command speeder that looked just like the one that was supposed to pick them up. But Artoo confirmed its number was not 714-D, so there was no reason to a.s.sume it was friendly.

And soon there wasn't just one command speeder, there were three-then four of them!

They seemed to be flying close to the mountains, looking for something.

Threepio began calculating the odds that they were searching for a certain meteor pod and two particular droids. He shook his head in dismay when he realized the chances were 1,245 to 1 that the Imperials had figured out they were there.

Threepio led Artoo behind a giant boulder, where they could peek out at the craggy, rocky meteor pod that had brought them to Kessel. But no sooner had the droids begun looking at their pod than a command speeder began shooting laserblasts at the surrounding boulders.

"I have a very bad feeling about this, Artoo," Threepio said grimly.

A blast suddenly struck the pod, exploding it into sc.r.a.p metal right in front of the droids' eye-sensors.

"Oh, nooooooo!" said Threepio frantically.

Within moments, Threepio's bad feeling got worse, as he watched an Imperial command speeder land near the exploded pod. Stormtroopers got out and began to inspect the debris.

"We're doomed," said Threepio.

"Get down, you two!" said a familiar-sounding voice.

Threepio turned and nearly stumbled in shock as a man in a green slave robe pulled back his hood and revealed his face.

"Master Luke! You found us. Oh, thank goodness! But what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you two. When there was no sign of your pod taking off, Admiral Ackbar and I figured you droids might be in need of some help. We took a big gamble by landing.

Quick-this way!"

The droids followed Luke Skywalker into the Kesselian mountain forest. Moments later they arrived at the Imperial command speeder that the Alliance had captured-Command Speeder 714-D-which was waiting for them.

Once they were safely inside, they greeted Admiral Ackbar, who was at the controls, and quickly blasted off.

The other Imperial command speeders followed them, firing at them from behind.

Ackbar and Luke returned the fire. They made a series of spectacular direct hits. One after another their enemies made crash dives, spinning out of control, back to the surface of Kessel.

As their s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p soared away from the outer atmosphere of Kessel, Artoo's radar screen popped up and spun around quickly. "Bzzz tzzzt gniiiz bzheeep dzz dzooop!" he beeped urgently.

"Oh, dear," said Threepio. "Artoo definitely doesn't advise that we chart a direct course back to Yavin Four. He's spotted Imperial probe droids directly in our path!"

CHAPTER 4.

Endangered Whaladons Hundreds of probe droids with clawlike arms searched through s.p.a.ce for the glove of Darth Vader.

While he waited for the reports from these probe droids, Trioculus delayed moving the Imperial forces to the bleak ice world of Hoth.

Soon news began trickling in.

The probe droids found everything but what Trioculus wanted most. They found debris from the Death Star, runaway prisoners, unexploded bombs, Alliance stars.h.i.+ps, and bounty hunters who were stealing Imperial weapons. They even spotted the missing Imperial Command Speeder 714-D, which narrowly got away when it changed course and entered a dangerous, radioactive asteroid zone from which few s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps had ever escaped.

But there was still no sign of the glove of Darth Vader.

Trioculus released his fury by hunting giant fefze beetles in the Kesselian mountains. He managed to kill three giant fefze, and with each conquest Grand Moff Hissa congratulated him enthusiastically.

But still Trioculus wasn't satisfied. In an angry voice he spoke of wanting a bigger hunt, a bigger kill. He proposed a journey to the steaming, ammonia-filled jungles of the planet Cona to hunt star dragons. However, before Grand Moff Hissa could even ask about arranging such a safari, Trioculus quickly changed the subject.

"Have any more troops questioned my right to be the new Emperor?" he asked.

"Some of the stormtroopers have been heard to complain, Lord Trioculus," replied Grand Moff Hissa.

"I want their names," Trioculus boomed, exploding with anger. "Their treason shall be punished!"

"Yes, your lords.h.i.+p." Grand Moff Hissa searched his mind for something new to report. "I also thought you should know that a salvage s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p found what was thought to be a glove this morning. Unfortunately it turned out to be nothing but an old, rusted droid hand, floating in s.p.a.ce in a cloud of hydrogen gas."

"Don't speak to me of droid hands, Hissa," said Trioculus, sneering. "My patience for this search is nearing an end."

Shortly after they returned to Trioculus's sleek black palace, a s.h.i.+pment of Whaladon meat was delivered to the palace kitchen. The delivery agent had come directly from the Kessel s.p.a.ceport, where the meat had arrived in an Imperial carrack cruiser filled with cargo from the planet Calamari.

The agent bowed before Grand Moff Hissa, who accepted the delivery papers.

"I've also brought a message for Lord Trioculus from Captain Dunwell," said the delivery agent. He broke the seal on the small case he was carrying, took out a hologram disk, and handed it to Grand Moff Hissa, who in turn handed it over directly to Trioculus.

"See that no one disturbs me while I find out what Captain Dunwell has to say," ordered the three-eyed ruler.

Trioculus took the disk into one of his private chambers and inserted it into a holo-projector. Within moments the face of Captain Dunwell appeared as a holographic image, floating before him.

Captain Dunwell had a short white beard and a reddish, leathery face. He wore a blue naval uniform with s.h.i.+ny b.u.t.tons and rows of medals.

"Dark Greetings, Lord Trioculus," he began. "Here, beneath the oceans of Calamari, I have made an astounding discovery. The Central Committee of Grand Moffs instructed me to contact you directly about this matter. As you may know, I have always been a loyal friend of the grand moffs. I urge you to come to see me on Calamari at once, at the Whaladon Processing Center. Your lords.h.i.+p will not be disappointed!"

Beneath the oceans of Calamari, Leviathor, the huge, white leader of the Whaladons, swam to the newly created Whaladon graveyard. In just a few years the bones of so many Whaladons had been dumped there by Captain Dunwell's Whaladon hunters that the sea floor in that region was now white.

Leviathor beheld the jagged rim of a crater just beyond the seaweed forest. Even from afar he could hear the dreaded machines churning in the huge underwater building at the bottom of that crater. The building was known as the Whaladon Processing Center.

Leviathor knew all too well that it was here where Captain Dunwell and his walrus-faced crew of Aqualish aliens killed the Whaladons that they captured.

There were now many young Whaladons who had no mothers to nurse them. And there were many older Whaladons, who used to swim the oceans of Calamari freely, who now hid, fearing for their lives, in the darkness of undersea caves.

Swis.h.i.+ng his great tail fin, Leviathor felt an invisible fire burning within him as he remembered the many learned and wise Whaladons who were now gone forever. No longer would they teach or sing songs-there was nothing left of them but their bones. Leviathor knew he had to save his endangered species before it was too late.

Just then a bright yellow light flashed behind Leviathor. He had been targeted. They were coming for him now!

The mighty Whaladon turned in the water and saw the huge new vessel-the biggest Whaladon-hunting submarine ever built-tracking him, following him with his every dive.

Leviathor raced for his life, his huge heart pounding fast.

There was a roar behind him and the water swirled with foam. A great suction was pulling at his tail, suction as if from a whirlpool.

Leviathor dove again. Swimming as he had never swum before, he sailed into the seaweed forest and down into a wide coral cave.

There he hid until the death machine had pa.s.sed by. Then Leviathor swam toward the Domed City of Aquarius, the undersea center of civilization on Calamari. He had to find someone who could help the Whaladons, and soon!

Aboard Command Speeder 714-D the recently installed s.h.i.+eld that protected the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p against radioactivity did its job. It helped Luke and Admiral Ackbar navigate safely out of the dangerous asteroid zone, where they had maneuvered to get away from the prying eye-sensors of the Imperial probe droids.

"We'll go to Calamari, Luke," Admiral Ackbar said as he programmed the command speeder on an automatic course toward his home planet. "When we get there, we'll transfer Artoo-Detoo's spy data about Trioculus and the Imperial officers into a computer that will a.n.a.lyze it."

"But Mon Mothma and Princess Leia are waiting for that information now" said Luke.

"At the moment we're likely to be spotted by Imperials if we fly near Yavin Four,"

explained Ackbar. "We'll wait on Calamari for a while, then send a Calamarian cargo cruiser on ahead of us with the coded data."

"When we get to Calamari," Threepio asked anxiously, "will there be time for Artoo and me to be modified back to our usual-looking selves at the Droid Repair Shop in the Domed City of Aquarius?"

"Are you sure that's what you want, Threepio?" said Luke with a grin. "I'm sort of getting used to you being green-and mean-looking."

"Honestly, Master Luke, sometimes your sense of humor astounds me."

A short time later when they came out of hyperdrive in the region of Calamari, Admiral Ackbar contacted Pisces Base, one of the Calamarian cities on a platform that floated on the ocean. He alerted Pisces that Imperial Command Speeder 714-D was a friendly s.h.i.+p of the Alliance and requested permission to land.

From Pisces Base Admiral Ackbar took Luke, Threepio, and Artoo aboard a Calamarian shuttle submarine that was heading for the Domed City of Aquarius.

Though there were many other cities on platforms above the waters, the Domed City of Aquarius was the only one that was located entirely under the sea. It was encased in a gigantic bubble, with the lower half containing rocks, coral, ca.n.a.ls, and seawater and the upper half containing air. In Aquarius air-breathers and water-breathers lived above and below one another, in a spirit of brotherhood and equality.

The Calamarian shuttle sub approached the domed city and entered the wide undersea tunnel entrance. Then it surfaced inside the bubble and docked.

As the spy mission team disembarked, Admiral Ackbar stopped suddenly. Luke wondered what was wrong. Finally Ackbar said, "Listen to that sound-it's a Whaladon song."

Luke noticed it, too. It was a faint, haunting melody, echoing between the tall buildings on both sides of the biggest ca.n.a.l in the city.

Making his way through the crowd, Ackbar led Luke and the droids toward the ca.n.a.l. There they saw Leviathor, his big white humps sticking out of the water.

Admiral Ackbar was one of the few air-breathing fishmen who understood Whaladon songs. As Leviathor sang about how the Whaladons were threatened with extinction because of Captain Dunwell's new Whaladon-hunting submarine, the admiral hung his head in sorrow.

"Wise One of the Calamarian Seas," said Admiral Ackbar, "you have my solemn promise that I will do everything I can to save you and your valiant species."

"Tell him he has my promise, too," Luke Skywalker added.

CHAPTER 5.

Captain Dunwell's Discovery Intent on learning what Captain Dunwell had found, Trioculus left for Calamari in an Imperial strike cruiser that had been modified to travel both in outer s.p.a.ce and undersea.

Soon after the strike cruiser penetrated the atmosphere of Calamari, it plunged underwater. In the cruiser's forward observation room Trioculus peered with all three of his eyes at the misty, dark ocean bottom.

He could make out the outline of a crater. And moments later, inside the crater on the ocean floor, he could see the faint white outline of Captain Dunwell's Whaladon Processing Center.

"We're in contact with Captain Dunwell, sir," said Grand Moff Hissa. "He's planning to greet you with a thirty laser-cannon salute and a military procession."

"Absolutely not," said Trioculus in a stern voice. "If I had wanted to be noticed, I would have asked for a parade, not a private meeting."

"As you wish, my Emperor."

As the Imperial strike cruiser approached the Whaladon Processing Center, Trioculus could see Captain Dunwell's new, immense Whaladon-hunting submarine stationed at an open undersea docking bay.

"It's equipped with whirlpool generators," explained Grand Moff Hissa, "for sucking the Whaladons right out of the ocean and into big storage chambers. The generators are powered by an antimatter furnace,"

"Impressive," said Trioculus.