Before they arrived, Jaina and the others had to expose the Shadow Academy.

Lowie groaned a question, which Em Teedee translated. "Master Lowbacca wishes to inquire if the focusing apparatus has condensed the beam of reflected sunlight to its full-power configuration."

"That's for sure," Peckhum said. "Once we get this thing turned, we'll really make them hot under the collar."

Hanging in orbit over Coruscant, the big mirrors finally swung into position, focusing their bright beam of condensed sunlight into the empty void. The mirror beam cut a swath through s.p.a.ce like a searchlight.

The light should have kept flying across the solar system, but when it struck the empty coordinates, s.p.a.ce itself seemed to shimmer like golden smoke. The high-intensity flood of sunlight continued to bombard the cloaked area, finally overwhelming the invisibility shields around the Shadow Academy.

"There!" Jaina cried triumphantly.

The Imperial station rippled into view and then snapped into perfect focus, a large circular ring bristling with spiked gun emplacements and observation towers.

Lowie and Chewbacca roared in unison, and Jaina shook her head. "They were hiding right on our doorstep all along. That's why they could use short-range fighters to attack the Adamant. That's how Tamith Kai and her companions could slip down to the city and steal Zekk away!"

"Zekk must be aboard the station then," Peckhum whispered. "That's where they've taken him."

"And the Lost Ones," Jaina added.

Chewbacca snarled, then pointed as the exposed Shadow Academy began to move. Thrusters along the equator of its donut shape burned blue-white on one side, nudging it away from the bright beam of concentrated sunlight.

"Turn the mirrors," Jaina said. "We can't let them get away before the ships arrive."

"Oh dear," Em Teedee said. "I do hope our fighters manage to apprehend that Shadow Academy. I'm still exceedingly vexed with them for reprogramming me when we were all taken prisoner there."

Peckhum punched new coordinates into the mirror directional systems, but the sudden acceleration and the change in direction proved too much for the already-stressed silvery sheeting. The long webs of cables that held the great mirror in position tore free, and a wide gash began to open up, spilling a seam of stars and black night through the glittering reflector.

"We can't hold it," Peckhum shouted. "It's too much!" He shook his head.

"We could never target a moving object anyway." Then he looked up and moaned. "My mirrors!"

The Shadow Academy continued to accelerate, and Jaina watched the approach of Admiral Ackbar's vengeful fleet, silently urging them to greater speed. But she could see they would not arrive in time.

"The Shadow Academy must already have been preparing to leave," she said.

"Of course. They've got Zekk and some other recruits. They've stolen a shipment of hyperdrive cores and turbolaser batteries. They were only increasing their danger by staying here."

Though its ringed shape made it appear unwieldy, the Shadow Academy picked up speed as it headed toward its appropriate hypers.p.a.ce jump point.

The first of the New Republic ships soared ahead, firing laser bursts at the Shadow Academy. Several shots struck home, leaving dark blaster scoring on the outer hull; the intensity of the solar mirror must have burned out some shields.

Jaina reached out with her mind, searching for Zekk, still marveling at the thought that the handsome, dark-haired street boy might have the potential to be a Jedi Knight. Or a Dark Jedi. She muttered to herself, feeling guilty, "He was our friend, and we never even imagined he might become a Jedi, too. Now it's too late."

As the New Republic ships arrowed toward their target, firing numerous laser bursts, the Shadow Academy suddenly shot forward with a bright flash of light. Its acceleration stretched s.p.a.ce and bent starlines, then it vanished to its unknown hiding place deep in Imperial territory.

The Shadow Academy was gone. Again.

Jaina swallowed a lump in her throat. And this time the Imperials had taken a friend with them.

21.

AT THE OBSERVATION windows of the mirror station, Jaina stood next to Lowie, her hands outstretched, as if she were trying to pull back the vanished Shadow Academy - and Zekk with it. But, with the exception of a few New Republic ships, the area where the Imperial s.p.a.ce station had disappeared remained stubbornly empty.

She let her arms fall back to her sides. Her eyes squeezed shut against the un-Jaina-like tears that had suddenly welled up, and her mind sent out a silent cry. Don't go, Zekk! Come back.

In stunned silence, Peckhum leaned against the station wall next to her.

His mirrors were damaged, and Zekk had joined the fragments of the Empire. "He's gone," the old man whispered.

When Lowie placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, Jaina felt strength and optimism flow back into her, as soothing as cool water to her burning sorrow. Drawing a deep breath, she searched the observation window again for any sign of hope.

A new movement caught her eye. "There!" she said, turning to grab Lowie's hairy arm.

"Did you see that?" Peckhum squinted, and the young Wookiee gave an interrogative growl.

"What do you mean, 'See what?"' Jaina said. "Look-something else is out there, right where the Shadow Academy was."

Lowie's rumbled reply sounded hesitant, but Em Teedee piped up to translate. "Master Lowbacca is loath even to suggest the possibility, but might that not simply be a New Republic ship, or one of the pieces of debris you've been tracking?"

"Absolutely not," Jaina said stubbornly. "Besides, any debris with a path that intersected the Shadow Academy would have been destroyed already-just like that shuttle, the Moon Dash."

Peckhum hunched over the comm system. "Strange. That object seems to be transmitting a pickup signal-if I read this correctly, that is."

Lowie's triumphant roar brought Chewbacca from the main stabilizer unit, where he had been attempting manual repairs to the mirror adjustment systems-to no avail.

"Not very big," Jaina said, studying the mirror station's crude scanners.

"Small enough to be an escape pod, don't you think?"

Lowie looked up at his uncle, who rumbled a negative.

"Looks more like a message canister to me," Peckhum said. "Speaking of which, the transmitters are working now, so why don't we send a message to the New Republic fleet? They'll pick it up, whatever it is."

"Well then," Jaina said, "what are we waiting for? Let's raise Admiral Ackbar."

Lowie transmitted the message while Jaina stared at the screen, still hoping.

"Years ago, Uncle Luke told me about one of his first students, a young man named Kyp Durron, who managed to stow away in a message pod." Jaina sent her mind out toward the object, trying to gather tiny bits of information with the Force. But she felt nothing, sensed no presence of her dark-haired friend. She heard Lowie croon a sad note beside her, but even without his confirmation, she knew that they wouldn't find Zekk inside the message pod.

At least not alive.

Jaina bit her lip and tried to look over Peckhum's shoulder as he piloted his old ship, the Lightning Rod, back toward Coruscant. Her view was all but obscured by the hairy form of Chewbacca, who took up the copilot's seat and much of the area around it. Thinking about the retrieved message pod from the Shadow Academy - - still sealed against the vacuum of s.p.a.ce and possibly containing a message from Zekk-filled her with a sense of urgency.

She wished she could tell Chewie and Peckhum to hurry up, that they had to get back immediately so they could be on hand when the message pod was opened. But that would have been foolish, not to mention rude. The two of them seemed to understand her anxiety and had already pushed the Lightning Rod to the highest speed its safety limits would allow. In the compartment behind them, the engines made disconcerting clunking sounds.

Jaina bit her lower lip.

Lowie sat in thoughtful silence beside her. Only the deep indentations left by his hairy fingers in the foam padding of the arm cushions told Jaina that the young Wookiee felt a tension similar to hers. As they reentered the atmosphere, Jaina forced her eyes shut and practiced one of Uncle Luke's Jedi relaxation techniques. But it didn't seem to work.

Finally, a gentle thump and the diminishing whine of the Lightning Rod's engines told her they had arrived at one of the landing pads in Imperial City.

Jaina jumped down onto the landing pad without waiting for the exit ramp to extend fully; she couldn't even remember having unfastened her crash webbing or opening the exit hatch. She immediately caught sight of her parents, brothers, and Tenel Ka, who were standing near another New Republic ship that had obviously just landed. The message pod from the Shadow Academy was already being unloaded. Jaina ran toward her family.

"Any sign of explosives or weapons?" Leia was asking Admiral Ackbar as he stood watching his troops perform their duties.

"Absolutely none. We scanned it," he said. "It's clean. No b.o.o.by traps."

"What about biologicals?" Han asked. The admiral shook his fishlike head.

"Can't be anything dangerous in there," Jaina said, skidding to a stop beside her parents. "It's from Zekk-I can feel it."

Admiral Ackbar looked skeptical, but three young voices spoke up at once.

"Hey, she's right."

"I feel it too."

"This is a fact."

"Even so," the Calamarian admiral said, "in the interest of safety, perhaps we should-"

Unable to bear the suspense any longer, Jaina pushed past the two guards who stood between her and the capsule, and activated the message retrieval mechanism. With a small whoosh of depressurization, the double panels slid aside to reveal the contents-a device of some sort, a complicated jumble of k.n.o.bby plasteel parts and cabling.

"What is that?" Leia asked in surprise.

"Stand back!" Ackbar shouted. The guards tensed, as if expecting an explosion.

Han glanced into the capsule and then looked over at Chewbacca and Peckhum, who had come to join them. "What do you think, Chewie?"

Chewbacca scratched his head and gave a couple of short, surprised-sounding barks.

"Yeah, looks like that to me, too," Han agreed.

"So what is it?" Jacen asked, exasperated at being unable to follow the interchange.

"A central mult.i.tasking unit, of course," Jaina whispered in amazement and delight. "From Zekk." Jaina heard a satisfied grunt from behind her.

Old Peckhum muttered, "Kid's never broken a promise to me yet."

Then, as if conjured by Peckhum's words, a holoprojector hummed to life.

A tiny image of Zekk resolved itself in the air just above the message pod. Jaina bit down hard on her lip again as the tiny glowing form began to speak.

"I'm doing this against the better judgment of my teachers here," Zekk said, "so I'll make this message brief."

"Peckhum, my friend, here's the central mult.i.tasking unit I promised you.

You always expected only the best from me, and I always gave it. This must be hard for you, but I want you to know that no one has kidnapped me or brainwashed me."

"To Jacen and"-the tiny holographic image hesitated-"and Jaina, it turns out I do have Jedi potential after all. I'm going to make more out of myself than anyone imagined I could be. We were good friends, and I'd never want to hurt you. Sorry I messed up your mother's diplomatic banquet-but that's one reason I'm doing this. I have the chance to become something better-a chance that I was never given by anyone in the New Republic."

Jaina groaned and shut her eyes, but the image continued to speak.

"I know this is something you wouldn't approve of, but I'm doing it for myself. If I ever come back, I'll be someone you can all be proud of."

"Don't worry, Peckhum, I'll never let you down. You've been my truest friend, and if there's any way I can come back to you, I will."

When Jaina opened her eyes again the tiny image had faded into sparkles, but she wouldn't have been able to see it anyway through her tears.

22.

THE HANGAR BAY at the base of the Great Temple on Yavin 4 was quiet and cool, welcoming the travelers back to the Jedi academy. The ship sighed as it settled down on the smooth floor. Luke Skywalker emerged from the hatch and stood in the shadows as his students climbed out after him.

In the days when the Great Temple had been a secret Rebel base on the jungle moon, the hangar bay had been a place of frantic activity, filled with X-wing fighters, noisy equipment, droids, fighter pilots, and miscellaneous weaponry. In recent years, however, this had been a peaceful place of Jedi contemplation.

Luke turned to watch the young Jedi Knights following him out of the Shadow Chaser, the sleek Imperial ship he and Tenel Ka had captured from the Shadow Academy while rescuing Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca. Luke's thoughts were as troubled as the faces of his young students descending the exit ramp.

With the help of the Shadow Academy, a group of renegades calling themselves the Second Imperium was mounting a serious threat against the shaky peace that had been built over the past two decades by the New Republic.

They could all sense it, and the battle was brewing, a great battle that would decide the fate of the galaxy The Shadow Academy had become more bold in searching for recruits with Jedi potential. In addition, it seemed to be welcoming trainees with no Jedi skills whatsoever-but why?

And then there was the theft of hyperdrive cores and turbolaser batteries from the Adamant-components that could be used to build a powerful military fleet. Something big was going to happen-and soon....

Luke had picked the kids up from Coruscant, which had given him an opportunity to see his sister Leia and learn more about the newest Imperial threat to the New Republic. Since then, none of the young Jedi Knights had spoken much, each lost in private thoughts. Now they had arrived back on the jungle moon, where the other students were still training, bringing back the powerful force of Jedi Knights to help strengthen the New Republic. The new government was going to need its Force-trained defenders soon.

Bright sunlight streamed through the broad door of the hangar, bathing the entire bay in light and shadow. Clean shadows. Luke looked up at the sunlight glinting off the burnished quantum armor on the Shadow Chaser.

"The Shadow Chaser is still a beautiful ship." Jaina's voice cut into Luke Skywalker's thoughts. "Look at those lines, the curves."

"And at least it's one powerful ship the Shadow Academy doesn't have anymore," Jacen added, coming to stand beside them.

Luke nodded. "But it also shows us what our enemies are capable of building. Think of what they can do with that large shipment of hyperdrive cores and turbolaser batteries they just stole."

Lowie grunted agreement.

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka said.