Young Jedi Knights_ Trouble On Cloud City Part 10

Jacen scrambled closer to the thin, painted boy. "What happened to Cojahn? We need to know."

The thranta rider stared off into the distant skies. The sunlight filtering through layers of mists dappled the tattoos on his face and skin.

M'kim said, "I can tell you this much. Your friend didn't jump of his own free will."

"What happened to Cojahn?" Jacen pressed again.

"We were out practicing, flying around on the other side of Cloud City.

We'd gone to the top to do loops around Kerros Tower. I was behind the rest of the group, because I'm not part of the actual act yet, even though I practice with the team. I saw a man on one of the outer balconies, but he wasn't alone."

"Who? Who was with him?" Jacen said.

"One big, angry man who looked like he was in charge, and a couple of thugs. I was surprised that the two thugs didn't do the dirty work for the angry man."

"What did the man look like?" Jacen said.

"Pretty strange. He had some sort of visor across his face, a red optical sensor, and short green hair the color of this algae you're sitting on.

He was quite unmistakable."

Jacen swallowed hard as he recognized the description: Czethros!

But the former bounty hunter and smuggler who had once promised to take revenge against Han Solo was now a respectable businessman on Ord Mantell-wasn't he?

"I know who you're talking about," Jacen said, "but what would Czethros be doing on Cloud City?"

"That man shows up every once in a while," M'kim said. "Things go on in Port Town and in some of the casinos that the Cloud City Gambling Authority intentionally ignores. I've heard rumors that a powerful criminal organization is trying to take over the gambling, entertaimuent, music... everything that happens on Bespin-and probably other planets as well. n.o.body pays much attention to us thranta riders, but we see things...."

Jacen thought of the sky-rodeo performers darting past windows, looking in. n.o.body would think to watch for a spy from the outside on a city in the clouds.

"That man with the green hair-Czethros, was it? - he comes here, supposedly on legitimate business. He meets with some of the important Exex." M'kim shook his head. "But something strange is going on."

"What happened to Cojahn on the balcony? Was he pushed?"

"They were having an argument," M'kim said. "The man with the green hair seemed very sure of himself, but when Cojahn didn't agree, the two thugs came forward to threaten him. Czethros waved them away. He just picked your friend up by the collar, yelled something at him, and tossed him off the balcony. Just... threw him over like a piece of garbage. The man fell."

Sickened, Jacen imagined Lando's friend reaching out for help and dropping, dropping.... "You couldn't help him? You couldn't catch him like you caught me?"

M'kim shook his head. Tears glistened in his eyes. "We were pretty high above Cloud City. I swooped down, but the winds were too strong.

Thunder clouds were rising, and the sky was so dark that the man just vanished into the black clouds. We couldn't find him."

Jacen drew a deep breath. "So why didn't you report this?"

"We don't know who we can trust." M'kim shook his head vigorously.

"Do you know how easy it would be for someone to sabotage one of our harnesses or drug one of the thrantas before a show? We've already received warnings and threats-nothing specific... butenough to make us worried." He drew a deep breath.

"Cloud City has a reputation as a clean place. If you gamble here, you know everything's fair. But someone's trying to change that. We do our sky rodeo, and our performances are well-attended. We've always been paid well; we risk our lives. But now"-he cleared his throat-"other factors are making life... uncomfortable." Jacen felt decidedly uneasy. "I need to get back to Cloud City," he said. "I have to tell my friends."

M'kim hung his head. "I know. We can go now. My people will be.worried about me too, I suppose." He placed his long fingers to his lips and blew a loud shrill whistle, startling Jacen. Instantly, the thranta flapped up above the edge of the island, hovered overhead, and bobbed about playfully.

"Climb up," M'kim said as the thranta dipped one of its broad, st.u.r.dy wings. Jacen scrambled onto the smooth back. The thranta rider leapt into place, grasped the harness with one hand, and snapped it lightly to set the flying creature in motion.

As they flapped away from the algae island, Jacen looked down to watch the matted ma.s.s disappear in the mists below. The thranta swept its wings gracefully in broad powerful strokes that carried them higher and higher into the sky.

Thick clouds had gathered, knotted conglomerations of mist and gas, turning the sky dark. Jacen couldn't tell in which direction Cloud City lay, but he hoped they would get back before the storm.

"Hey, how do you know where we're going?" he said close to M'kim's ear.

The thranta rider shrugged. "We know."

The thranta flew onward and upward as a thunderhead nearly the size of an asteroid rose in front of them. The thranta circled around, keeping a good distance between them and the storm cloud. Lightning crackled inside the huge cloud like tiny explosions.

Jacen spotted several black shapes circling the outer surface of the great storm. M'kim seemed more uneasy now, and the thranta gave the thunderhead an even wider berth.

"Are those more thrantas?" Jacen said, pointin, to the other large flying creatures that seemed drawn by the discharges from the storm.

"No. We have to stay clear," M'kim said. "Those are velsers."

Jacen watched with a mixture of dread and fascination. He'd heard of the sleek, fast-flying predators on Bespin that could swoop in and rip apart their prey with rows upon rows of ja,ged teeth.

"If those velsers see our thranta," M'kim said, "we're done for."

"But why are they so close to the storm?" Jacen asked. "Isn't it dangerous for them?"

"Velsers are always attracted by storms. I think the lightning discharges give them some kind of energy." With a nervous chuckle, M'kim shrugged again. "All I know is that I don't want to get close enough to one to find out." Though Jacen would have loved to see such a spectacular creature up close, he realized that would be foolish. He had already come too near to death for one day.

They climbed higher and swept past the thunderhead. The velsers didn't notice them, and Jacen could sense M'kim relaxing. Jacen patted the side of the thranta. "Good work," he whispered, though he had no idea if the creature could hear him.

Finally, he spotted the gleaming metropolis of Cloud City up ahead.

Lights spangled the sides of its hemispherical dome. The thranta drove toward it, and Jacen drew a deep breath. He couldn't remember ever seeing such a beautiful sight in his life.

He'd survived his ordeal-and he fervently hoped that Lowie and Tenel Ka had survived theirs as well.

Flanked by a stoic Lowbacca and a disturbed but aloof-looking Anja, Tenel Ka waited for the Lady Luck to cruise back into the docking port on Cloud City. Feeling her stomach muscles knot, she closed her burning eyes and tried to face down the fear inside.

The prospect of doing this, of telling Jaina Solo that her brother had been killed, was more frightening than any battle or other ordeal Tenel Ka's Jedi training had put her through.

The warrior girl's throat was tight. Though she and Lowie had almost died in the same a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, she still felt there must have been something more she could have done to keep her friend Jacen alive.

She was a Jedi! But she had failed him.

Another more subtle failure haunted her as well. Tenel Ka had always believed that the connection between her and Jacen was so close, so strong, that she would be able to sense if any harm came to him.

She should have felt it through the Force the instant he died-but she hadn't. Instead, her emotions had betrayed her, taunted her with the hope that Jacen had survived somehow. She even imagined she'd heard his voice calling out to her in her mind. But she had been delirious at the time, in shock from loss of blood. The Cloud City medics had been able to heal the wounds on her arm, but not the ones in her soul.

Fleeting thoughts tormented her even now, daring her to believe that Jacen was still alive.

Lowbacca fidgeted beside her, his dark lips drawn down in a frown.

Em Teedee, silent for once, had dimmed his optical sensors in a gesture of respect. Anja's pale face looked pinched and she avoided eye contact with the others. Tenel Ka could sense tendrils of pain and sorrow floating like a tangible mist all around them. It was so difficult to face this truth.

Jacen was gone.

Lando's polished s.p.a.ce yacht followed floor guidance lights as it landed on the platform. Tenel Ka's cool gray eyes filled with tears and she took one step forward to face the s.h.i.+p. Lowbacca put a strong, hairy hand on Tenel Ka's bare shoulder. Anja moved back to stand alone behind them. Em Teedee hung silent and unmoving on Lowie's syrenfiber belt.

The Lady Luck settled in and landing clamps locked it down. Tenel Ka steeled herself for the fresh grief her news would bring. But just moments after the s.p.a.ce yacht's landing ramp descended, a door on the other side of the docking bay whooshed opened. Tenel Ka turned, unable to believe what she saw with her own granite-gray eyes.

Jacen himself entered the bay, looking bedraggled and dirty, but perfectly healthy. He grinned a weary, lopsided grin.

"Jacen Solo!" Tenel Ka cried. "Jacen, my friend!" She bounded toward him, moving even faster than the Wookiee's long legs could carry him.

When Tenel Ka fairly tackled Jacen, throwing her arm around him in a joyous embrace, he was nearly as astonished as the warrior girl.

He hugged her back, laughing. "Wow! That was almost worth falling for."

Lowbacca swept both of them together into a ma.s.sive Wookiee hug.

Jacen spat ginger fur out of his mouth. "Okay, okay! I'm all right, you big walking carpet! At least I was fine until I got into this pileup here."

"But how, Jacen, my friend? What happened? How are you alive?

How did you get back here?" Tenel Ka asked in a rush.

Lowie roared his own barrage of questions, and Em Teedee added in a scolding tone, "Master Jacen, you gave us all such a fright. It was really terribly inconsiderate of you."

"Thanks, Em Teedee. I'm glad to see you, too," Jacen said. "I'll try not to do it again."

Lando, Jaina, and Zekk emerged from the Lady Luck, blinking in surprise as the other young Jedi Knights remained cl.u.s.tered around Jacen instead of greeting them upon their return from Clak'dor VII.

"Hey, did I miss something here?" Lando said.

Em Teedee answered for them all, speaking loudly in his tinny voice.

"You certainly did, Master Calrissian. And you don't know the half of it.

Anja came up to Jacen, trembling. He could see the relief in her eyes, which she tried to cover up with a bland imperturbable smile.

"Now, this is one story I've got to hear," she said. "Don't tell me Jedi Knights can fly now?"

Jaina and Zekk ran to join their friends as Lando sealed his s.p.a.ce yacht behind them. "Wild trip. We got a lot of information," Jaina said.

"Found out what's going on here in Cloud City."

"Ah, we found out a few more things, too," Jacen said. "And I discovered exactly what happened to Cojahn on that balcony."

Tenel Ka couldn't cover her gasp of surprise. Lowie growled.

Lando's interest was obviously piqued. "Looks like we've all got some talking to do."

Anja seemed unaccountably disturbed. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave Jacen a shaky smile. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Hey, never underestimate a Jedi," he said.

As they sat together sipping hot broth drinks in a quiet cantina that overlooked the thranta practice for the upcoming sky rodeo, they all shared their separate stories.

Lando, Jaina, and Zekk recounted what they had learned from Figrin D'an and his band about how Black Sun was trying to infiltrate the workings of Cloud City. Tenel Ka, with additions from Lowie, told of the a.s.sa.s.sin attack after they had followed the fired Ugnaught construction boss, while Jacen described his rescue by M'kim the thranta rider, and how M'kim had seen a visored man with algae-green hair murder Cojahn... an angry, ruthless man who was almost certainly Czethros himself.

"But you can't prove it's Czethros," Anja said. "It's a big galaxy.

There are plenty of other people with moss-green hair."

"And the laser visor?" Jaina asked skeptically.

"Certainly not enough evidence to convict anyone," Anja said firmly.

"I prefer solid proof myself, instead of hearsay from an 'eyewitness' who was flying around with the setting sun in his eyes. If M'kim was so close that he could make out the facial features of the person who allegedly boosted Cojahn over the side of the balcony, how come he wasn't close enough to catch the man as he fell?"

"I already explained that," Jacen said. "There were storms-" Lando raised a hand for peace. "It's easy enough to determine whether or not Czethros was here. I still have my old BaronAdministrator access codes. Let's just find a nice quiet business area, and we can check Cloud City's central computer banks. Lowie, I think you might help me with that."

The young Wookiee chuffed in agreement and nodded his s.h.a.ggy head.

"We can check the records. Everyone coming in or out of Cloud City has to leave some sort of pa.s.sport information. Docking records, pa.s.senger manifests, tariff doc.u.ments. It'll be quite a search......

"Czethros is kind of hard to miss," Zekk said.

Lowie stood up from the table, his ginger fur bristling, the dark streak prominent on his forehead. Em Teedee said, "If I can be of any help, I would most gladly offer the a.s.sistance of my circuits."

"Thanks, Em Teedee," Lando said. "Let's see what Lowbacca can find first.

As the other young Jedi Knights gathered around the computer terminals, Lowie bounced through the public records databases, scanning for the name Czethros. The search ultimately turned up nothing.

"See, he never came here," Anja said. "Your thranta rider made a mistake.

"I thought you told us we were gullible," Zekk answered. "Any man who's got that many connections and is involved in illegal activities would know how to hide his tracks."

Next, Lowie looked through docking records, credit receipts, list of purchases made and transmissions sent. It was a monumental task and required all of the Wookiee's concentration as well as the full access given to him by Lando's high-level security codes.

"Sure glad you were Baron-Administrator," Jaina said. "We would've hit a dead end right away if you hadn't opened some of those pa.s.sworded files."