THE YOUNG JEDI Knights emerged from the munitions bunker, each carrying a pack that held enough explosives to blow up a substantial portion of the depot. As they'd realized what they were about to do, their lighthearted camaraderie had turned to grim determination. When Bornan Thul narrowed his eyes, inspecting the companions, Jacen was worried the man might dismiss them as a bunch of kids caught in a dangerous situation. But instead, Raynar's father saw bravery there, and a dedication to purpose.

He obviously considered them all, including his own son, to be real Jedi Knights. Jaina dug in her pack to take inventory of the explosives, the detonators, and the s.p.a.ce mines she had stashed there.

"We'll have to find strategically vulnerable areas on the asteroid. It'll take plenty of explosives, carefully positioned at specific structural weak points, to bring this place down."

"We will find the weaknesses," Tenel Ka said.

"Let's split up into teams," Zekk suggested. "We can go off in different directions and plant more explosives in less time. I want to slag this depot and get out of here before anything goes wrong."

"If anything does go wrong, though," Jacen said, "we'd better agree to rendezvous in our ships out in s.p.a.ce."

"An excellent suggestion, Master Jacen," Em Teedee said at Lowie's side.

"I, for one, will be glad to have this Diversity Alliance business over with so that we can get on with more pleasant pursuits."

Lowie patted the little translating droid as if in commiseration. He barked and chuffed an alarming suggestion, which Em Teedee pa.s.sed along.

"Master Lowbacca suggests that since he is the only nonhuman in this group, he should be the one to plant explosives inside the plague chamber." Jaina exclaimed, "We can't let you go in there by yourself, Lowie!"

"Lowbacca is correct," Tenel Ka said. "If the rest of us are exposed, we are doomed. He may be immune because he is not human."

"Hey, I think we'll all encounter sufficient dangers in setting our own explosives," Jacen said, understanding the grim truth behind Lowie's realization. Somberly, they went in separate directions, carrying their explosives. Lowie trudged toward the central plague chamber, Em Teedee clipped to his belt. Zekk and Raynar stayed with Bornan Thul, who was still loading up at the munitions storage room, while Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka went off to disperse their detonators at structural weak points in the domes and tunnel junctures.

As they hurried, Jaina scrutinized the tunnel walls, corridor intersections, and pressurized domes. She hesitated outside the doorway to one of the overhead domes, unslung her pack, and withdrew a heavy disk, a s.p.a.ce limpet mine. Holding the mine against one of the metal walls, she pushed a b.u.t.ton to activate its magnetic seal. With a clank, the mine attached itself to the wall. She looked over at her brother and Tenel Ka, raising an eyebrow.

"These limpet mines used to be sent out like a cloud into s.p.a.ce. If one attached itself to the hull, it could blow up an entire Corellian corvette."

Tenel Ka grunted in appreciation. "Devastating," she said. "The only problem was, they clung to anything metal in the vicinity. They used no discrimination routines, and several Victory-cla.s.s Star Destroyers ended up victims of their own s.p.a.ce mines."

"Serves them right," Jacen said.

"It is always tragic when warfare causes unintended casualties," Tenel Ka pointed out. "Even Imperial ones."

"Well, if we destroy this depot, the Emperor won't cause any more casualties," Jaina said. She activated the s.p.a.ce mine, and its lights winked green: READY FOR DETONATION. She went farther down the wall of the dome and planted another mine on the opposite wall. "That should take care of this dome," she said.

"Now let's move on to the next one." Jacen followed, planting detonators at the branchpoints of corridors.

Once they set off all this destruction, nothing would remain of the asteroid but a rock as dead as it had been before the Empire set foot on it. Lowbacca hesitated outside the doorway to the central plague chamber.

This airtight room contained more death than he had ever seen in one place: sealed transparent cylinders filled with multicolored liquids, vials of plague solutions, nutrient baths teeming with virulent organisms. It was his responsibility to destroy them all, and he carried high-temperature incinerating explosives to do the job. It wouldn't do just to crack open the vials and disperse the liquids. He had to make sure the explosion was hot enough, with incandescent heat from a dozen thermal detonators, to annihilate the virus that had been created to kill human beings.

"Well, Master Lowbacca, it does no good to wait," Em Teedee scolded.

"It's high time we went inside and plant the detonators. The others are counting on us."

Lowie growled something, and Em Teedee huffed.

"I am not being impatient. Just because I'm a droid and can't get a plague doesn't mean I don't understand the dangers. I can well imagine computer viruses, you know." Rather than endure more of the droid's talk, Lowie worked the airlock controls, a.s.sisted by Em Teedee's rapport with the computer systems. The air within the pressurized chamber was kept sterile, and backup systems and fail-safes prevented any possible leaks.

Lowie stepped inside, his fur bristling with apprehension. The metal floor felt cold against his feet, and the air smelled harsh and disinfected. He looked around at the tubes and spheres of deadly solution and planned his strategy. He left the pressure door open behind him, not relishing the prospect of being trapped inside the lethal chamber.

Then he cautiously walked in among the towering cylindrical tanks. He moved slowly, carefully, until he finally snapped himself out of his daze and removed the thermal detonators from his pack. He was a Jedi Knight, and he had a threat to wipe out. He placed his first set of heat explosives under the largest of the bubbling tanks in the center of the room; then he spiralled outward, ducking down, moving like a machine as he planted one detonator after another.

He didn't want to think about the swarming virus behind the thin walls of transparisteel. He didn't want to smell the reprocessed air. He just wanted to be out of here and destroy it all behind him. As he planted another set of detonators, though, he noticed a marking near the base of the tube labeling the solution inside-KRYTOS PLAGUE, MULTIPLE SPECIES, SLOW-ACTING.

Lowie stiffened, recognizing this disease that had harmed so many aliens, including Wookiees, just after the fall of the Empire. So... this plague storehouse held far more than just the human-killing plague after all!

Lowie now turned his attention to the other tanks and vials, inspecting their labels. The colored solutions contained numerous deadly agents.

Label after label made his blood run cold. GAMORREAN, SLOW - ACTING.

QUARREN, FAST-ACTING. WOOKIEE, SLOW-ACTING. TWI'LEK/CALAMARIAN, VARIABLE.

VIRULENCE.

Lowie realized that if Nolaa Tarkona got her hands on all of this, not only could she destroy humans, but she could also threaten every other race in the galaxy! The leader of the Diversity Alliance could a.s.sert her power over any species in a way that even the Emperor had not dared to do. Lowie planted his remaining detonators as fast as he could, then rigged up a central explosive controller, which he placed near the main containers in the middle of the room. He would be very glad to get out of this place.

Not even he was safe in here.

After the other young Jedi Knights went on their way, Raynar stayed beside his father inside the munitions bunker. Zekk put his hands on his hips and looked up at the remaining explosives, blasters, and detonators.

"Still plenty left here to cause quite a bit of destruction," he said.

Boman Thul went to work opening cases and linking detonators, preparing to trigger the remaining explosives.

"If we set off all these," Thul said, "we'll put this entire asteroid into a spin."

"I'd rather not be here when that happens," Raynar said.

His father looked down at him with an understanding smile.

"We won't be, Raynar," he said. "I'll make sure you get out of here safely."

Borran Thul worked hard to arrange boxes, linking up blast points for sympathetic explosions. His son dutifully opened more cases, while Zekk moved from one to another, making connections, checking timers, and setting the stage for the biggest explosion he could imagine.

"If Jaina can find enough structural weak points to b.o.o.by-trap, then this should take care of the weapons depot once and for all," Zekk said, confident in his friend's abilities.

Borra sighed.

"I should have found a way to do this myself a long time ago."

"We're finished here," Zekk said, impatient to get moving again. He grabbed several explosive packs to take with him. "We'll plant these along the way," he said, "then pick up Lowbacca back at the central chamber."

WITH EACH EXPLOSIVE she planted, Jaina felt the metal-lined hallways seem to close in on her. At her direction, Jacen set timed explosives in alternate places, while Tenel Ka drew her lightsaber and sliced partway through support beams or disabled safety interlocks.

"Blaster bolts! When this place blows, it's really going to blow," Jacen observed. "Hey, how many thermal detonators does it take to blow up an Imperial weapons depot?"

"Ah. Aha," Tenel Ka said, responding to Jacen's attempt at humor as if the question were a serious one.

"The answer is obvious." Jaina finished setting the time delay on her detonator, moved farther down the corridor, and began setting up the next one. "Okay then," she said, rising to the bait, "how many thermal detonators does it take?"

Still holding her lightsaber, Tenel Ka shrugged eloquently.

"All of them, of course." Jacen chuckled. "Yeah. I think you're right.

We..."

"Wait." Tenel Ka held up her hand for silence. She listened, then switched off her lightsaber so its hum would not mask any other noises.

Jaina heard the sound and sprang to her feet.

"Company?"

Tenel Ka backed a few steps down the corridor toward Jaina and Jacen, alert and looking in the direction from which the sound had come.

"Uh-oh," Jacen said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Something tells me that whoever our visitors are, they didn't arrive on the Lightning Rod or the Rock Dragon."

Jaina bit her lower lip as she felt the same tingle of warning.

"The Diversity Alliance?"

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka said. "We must stay ahead of them in order to complete our mission." But before the three young Jedi could move, several figures rounded a corner far down the hallway. A furry white Talz and a tentacle-faced Quarren were in the lead. They all recognized the Quarren, whom they had seen on Ryloth with Nolaa Tarkona. Lowie had told them his name.

"Rullak," Jaina said. Before Nolaa Tarkona's henchmen took another step, the three friends ran in the opposite direction down the corridor. Behind them the Quarren burbled a command and fired his blaster. The energy bolt spanged harmlessly off a metal wall and deflected into the ceiling, where it left a small, smoking hole.

"Excellent," Tenel Ka said as they ran.

"What?" Jacen asked. Another shot zinged past without touching them.

"They're trying to kill us!"

He ran full tilt toward an intersection of corridors.

"Yes, excellent," Tenel Ka said, moving into the lead beside him. Her long red-gold hair and warrior braids streamed out behind her. "Because Rullak's aim is terrible."

A third blaster bolt hit the floor several meters behind them, and Jaina realized that Tenel Ka was right. Jaina still carried a concussion grenade under one arm and a microdetonator in her hand. Risking a glance behind her, she noticed that the alien guards had not gained any ground.

She had already set the detonator in her hand. Without stopping, she reset the timer with her free hand, activated the microdetonator's magnetic backing, and smacked the explosive against one of the metal walls, where it clung. Then, pulling the concussion grenade from under her arm, she armed it and dropped it to the floor as Jacen and Tenel Ka disappeared around a corner ahead.

Jaina barely managed to dive to the floor around the corner before the first of her explosions went off. Jacen and Tenel Ka dragged Jaina back to her feet as the second blast shook the corridor.

"Those were only minor explosions," she panted. "Won't hold ' em long."

"Hurry then," Tenel Ka urged, switching her lightsaber back on and taking up her position in the rear as they pelted down the hallway. Sooner than they might have hoped, Diversity Alliance guards reappeared behind them, pursuing with renewed vigor. Blaster bolts-this time from several weapons-pinged and sizzled around them. Tenel Ka, running backward now, used her lightsaber to deflect any shots that came close.

"This way," Jaina said. She turned down a branching corridor just as a blaster bolt hit close to the floor at Tenel Ka's feet, forcing her to jump. When a second blast zinged off the corridor wall beside her, Tenel Ka threw herself backward, brought up her lightsaber, and deflected the bolt - but not without a price. Unable to regain her balance in time, Tenel Ka tried to pull herself forward again to land on her right leg, but her foot encountered a loose chunk of plasteel broken free from the ceiling. Her foot slipped, and the ankle turned at an angle it had never been meant to a.s.sume.

One of the guards saw her loss of balance and shot past the Quarren toward Tenel Ka. Knowing her leg would not hold her anyway, the warrior girl relaxed her body and allowed it to fall, so that the energy bolt sizzled harmlessly over her-a hair's breadth from the breastplate of her lizard-hide armor. Tenel Ka tucked and rolled as she hit the floor, having the presence of mind to switch off her lightsaber as she tumbled a few meters to avoid more blaster fire and-even with only one arm - displaying her prowess as a fighter.

Jacen stepped out of the corridor in front of her, his lightsaber blazing to deflect the enemy fire.

"That way," he yelled, jerking his head to indicate the corridor from which he had come.

Pushing off from the metal wall behind her, Tenel Ka launched herself into the side corridor in a tumbling roll. During calisthenics she'd often used such maneuvers to bring herself out of a defensive position, back to her feet, and ready to go on the offense. This time, though, when she came out of the roll with both feet planted beneath her, a jolt of pain lanced upward from her right ankle. She bit back an outcry. She could not afford to draw Jacen or Jaina's attention away from their own defenses by causing them concern for her.

"This way," Jaina's voice hissed.

Jaina stood farther down the corridor at the control panel to a safety interlock, where a vaulted portal was set into a bulkhead. Jacen backed around the corner beside Tenel Ka, still deflecting blaster bolts. "Come on, you two, " Jaina called. Her brother turned and ran, grabbing for Tenel Ka's arm. She gritted her teeth and pounded down the hallway next to him, ignoring the spear of pain she felt every time her right foot touched the ground.

Moments later they were through, and Jaina swung the heavy portal shut behind them.

"I set an entry code on the emergency interlocks," she explained, "but I don't know how long this'll hold them."

Tenel Ka ignored the flaring pain in her right leg, tuning it out as if switching off a faulty comlink.

"Perhaps our situation calls for desperate measures," she said.

INSIDE THE PLAGUE chamber, Lowie planted his last thermal detonator and set the controls. He stood up, satisfied with his work, and growled at the insidious storehouse of destruction. He looked around one last time, surrounded by a forest of tall, bubbling cylinders. Suddenly he felt a chill as his Jedi senses brought him to full alert. He was no longer alone in the room. Lowie heard no change in the background hissing and burbling, no m.u.f.fled conversation-but he did feel an unaccustomed stir in the air currents. From the center of the crowded equipment room he couldn't see the outer walls.

In fact, he could see very little except barricades of tubes and canisters. But as he listened, his fur p.r.i.c.kling against his skin, he heard a grating, rasping breath... heavy footfalls that came slowly, stealthily.

As if something were stalking him. Lowie's fingers drifted to his lightsaber. His muscles tensed, and the dark streak on his forehead stood upright in an intimidating brush. Danger, he sensed, danger. He held himself utterly still.

Then Em Teedee said in a whisper that sounded louder to Lowie than his uncle losing a hologame, "Master Lowbacca, I do believe there's someone else-"

Lowie jumped backward, startled, and planted a ginger-furred hand over Em Teedee's speaker grille. But it was too late. - He heard a roar and the sc.r.a.pe of claws on the cold floor as the giant reptile Corrsk marched around the corner, his fang-filled jaws open as wide as their hinges would allow.

His hiss was like a boiler explosion.

"Time to die, Wookiee!" Corrsk drew a huge blaster, wrapping his scaly fingers around its grip. Lowie ignited his lightsaber with a throbbing snap-hiss.

"Master Lowbacca, you mustn't allow him to shoot at you in here!" the droid said. "Any blaster fire could break open one of the plague canisters!"

Lowie roared to acknowledge that he was fully aware of the danger.

Licking the scaled edges of his mouth with a long tongue, Corrsk nodded and reholstered the blaster with a gleam of pleasure in his cold yellow eyes.

The Trandoshan came at Lowie, his bare claws extended. Lowie ducked behind two cylinders as Corrsk lumbered after him, growling with anger but also expressing joy in the hunt. Em Teedee was absolutely right-he had to get the Trandoshan out of the plague chamber so that their fight would not cause accidental damage. Lowie ran full-out in a long-legged sprint across the slick metal floor. After gaining some distance, he deactivated his lightsaber, afraid of what a careless blow against one of the cylinders might do. He heard the Trandoshan follow, crashing... and then the reptile fell silent, stalking him again.

Lowie slipped between two large canisters that contained the human-killing virus. The fluid-filled transparisteel felt very cold against his back. He growled quietly for Em Teedee not to voice a word. The little droid flashed his optical sensors to show he understood the order. The Wookiee listened, but heard nothing. He stepped out, cautiously peering around. He gazed down a long corridor filled with identical - looking tubes of plague solution. The chamber door remained open, inviting him to dash out into the corridors. He had not sealed it, thinking to leave himself a clear path for escape-but he had inadvertently made it easy for Corrsk to come in and stalk him. If Lowie could get out the door and lock it behind him, he could perhaps trap the Trandoshan inside.

But then another realization struck him-Corrsk could not possibly be on the asteroid alone. He must have brought the Diversity Alliance with him!

Perhaps Nolaa Tarkona herself was already in the plague depot. Lowie moved as silently as he could, ready to dash for the doorway. Suddenly, with an exploding roar, Corrsk lurched out from where he had hidden, waiting for Lowie to head toward the chamber door.

The Wookiee's Jedi senses warned him in the same instant, and he leaped aside. The giant reptile, however, wrapped his muscular arms around Lowie in a murderous bear hug. Lowie struggled and roared, but his arms were pinned at his sides. He looked down to see a smooth, waxy scar on the scaled arm, the remnants of the light - saber gash Lowie had dealt him during their previous battle, when he had caused a tunnel ceiling to fall down on Corrsk.