"It makes a difference," Brakiss said. "It means I haven't explained well enough just what I can do for you. But if you'll open a c.h.i.n.k in the wall of your resistance-just to listen, perhaps you will be convinced."

"And what if I'm not convinced?" Zekk said with more defiance than he felt.

Brakiss shrugged. "Then I will have failed. What more can I say?"

Zekk didn't press the point, wondering if he would be killed if he didn't fall in with the plans of the Second Imperium.

"Come to my office," Brakiss said, and led the boy down the curving, smooth-walled corridors. They seemed to be alone, but Zekk noticed armed stormtroopers standing in doorways at rigid attention, ready to offer a.s.sistance if Brakiss encountered any problems. Zekk stifled a smile at the mere thought of him posing a threat to Brakiss.

The Academy leader's private chamber seemed as dark as s.p.a.ce. The walls were made of black transparisteel, projecting images of cataclysmic astronomical events: flaming solar flares, collapsing stars, gushing lava fields. Zekk looked around in awe. These violent and dangerous images showed a harsher edge to the universe than the galactic tourism kiosks on Coruscant had.

"Sit down," Brakiss said in his calm, unemotional voice. Zekk, listening for any implied threat, realized that at this point resistance would be futile. He decided to save his struggles for later, when they might count for more.

Brakiss took his place behind his long polished desk, reached into a hidden drawer, and withdrew a small cylindrical flare stick. Gripping both ends in his fine, pale hands, he unscrewed the cylinder in the middle. When the two metal halves came apart, a brilliant bluegreen flame spouted upward, shimmering and flickering, but giving off little heat.

The cold fire, mirrored on the office walls, threw its washed-out light against the images of astronomical disasters.

"What are you doing?" Zekk asked.

On his desk Brakiss balanced the two halves of the flare stick against each other, forming a triangle. The pale flame curled upward, strong and steady.

"Look at the flame," Brakiss said. "This is an example of what you can do with your Force abilities. Manipulating fire is a simple thing, a good first test. You'll see what I mean if you try. Watch."

Brakiss crooked one finger, and his gaze took on a faraway look. The bright fire began to dance, swaying back and forth, writhing as if it were alive. It grew taller and thinner, a mere tendril, then spread out to become a sphere, like a small glowing sun.

"Once you've mastered the simple things," Brakiss said, it you can try more amusing effects." He stretched the flame as if it were a rubber sheet, creating a contorted face with flashing eyes and gaping mouth. The face melted into the image of a dragon snapping its long head back and forth, then metamorphosed into a flickering portrait of Zekk himself, drawn in blue-green fire. Zekk stared in fascination. He wondered if Jacen or Jaina could do anything like this.

Brakiss released his control and let the flame return to a small bright point glimmering on the flare stick. "Now you try it, Zekk. Just concentrate. Feel the fire, like flowing water, like paint. Use fingers in your mind to draw it into different shapes. Swirl it around. You'll get the feel of it."

Zekk leaned for-ward eagerly, then stopped himself. "Why should I cooperate? I'm not going to do any favors for the Second Imperium or the Shadow Academy - - or for you."

Brakiss folded his smooth hands and smiled again. "I wouldn't want you to do it for me. Or for a government or inst.i.tution you know little about.

I'm asking you to do this for yourself! Haven't you always wanted to develop your skills, your talents? You have a rare ability. Why not take advantage of this opportunity, especially you, a person whose life has had, if I may say, too few advantages. Even if you return to your old life afterward, won't you be better off if you can use the Force, rather than relying on what you once thought of as a 'knack' for finding valuable objects?"

Brakiss leaned forward. "You are independent, Zekk. I see that. We're looking for independent people-people who can make their own decisions, who can succeed no matter how much their so-called friends expect them to fail. You have your chance, here, now. If you aren't interested in bettering yourself, if you don't bother to make the attempt, then you fail before you've even begun." The words were sharp, reprimanding, but they struck home.

"All right, I'll try it," Zekk said. "But don't expect much."

He squinted his green eyes and concentrated on the flame. Although he didn't know what he was doing, he tried different things, various ways of thinking. He stared directly at the flame, then saw it out of the corner of his eye, tried to imagine moving it, nudging it with invisible fingers of thought. He didn't know what he did or how to describe it-but the flame jumped!

"Good," Brakiss said. "Now try again."

Zekk concentrated, retracing the mental path he had taken before, and found it with less effort this time. The flame wavered, bent to one side, then jumped and stretched longer in the other direction. "I can do it!"

Brakiss reached forward and snapped the flare stick together again, extinguishing the flame. Immediately, Zekk felt a sharp disappointment.

"Wait! Let me try it one more time."

"No," Brakiss said with a smile that was not unkind. "Not too much at once. Come with me to the docking bay. I need to show you something else."

Zekk licked his lips, feeling hungry somehow, and followed Brakiss, trying to squelch his impatience to try again with the flame. His appet.i.te had now been whetted-and part of him suspected that was exactly what the leader of the Shadow Academy had intended....

Inside the hangar bay Qorl and a regiment of stormtroopers worked to unload the precious cargo they had stolen from the Rebel cruiser Adamant.

Brakiss came in leading Zekk, who stared at all the ships stationed at the Shadow Academy.

"I wish I could show you our finest small ship, the Shadow Chaser,"

Brakiss said with a look of regret, "but Luke Skywalker took it when he charged in here to capture our trainees Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca."

Zekk scowled, but refrained from telling Brakiss that it served the Shadow Academy right, since they had kidnapped the three young Jedi first, for their own ends. He looked away.

Up in the control room overlooking the cavernous docking bay, the black-haired Tamith Kai stood watching the activities through slitted violet eyes. Beside her were two dark allies from Dathomir, Vilas and Garowyn.

Zekk flinched, his lips curling downward in anger as he noted that these were the ones who had stunned him and taken him from Imperial City.

"Pay them no mind," Brakiss said with a dismissive gesture. "They're jealous because of the attention I'm paying you."

Zekk felt a surprising flood of warmth and wondered if the comment was true, or just something Brakiss had said to make him feel more special.

One of the stormtroopers stopped in front of them and saluted. "I have an update for you, sir," he said to Brakiss. "Our repairs on the upper docking tower are almost complete. We should have it fully functional in two days."

"Good," Brakiss said, looking relieved. He explained to Zekk, "I still find it difficult to believe that a Rebel supply shuttle could have been so unfortunately clumsy as to smash right into the cloaked Shadow Academy! These Rebels cause damage even when they're not looking!"

Qorl hefted one of the small weapons cores from a sealed crate. Zekk guessed from the melted, blackened craters around the control panel that the stormtroopers must have used blasters to break the cyberlocks. The hyperdrive core was long and cylindrical, with yellows and oranges pulsing through translucent tubes where condensed spin-sealed tibanna gas had been charged to power the drives.

"These are fine new models, Lord Brakiss," the old TIE pilot said. "We can use them to power our weapons systems, or we can convert more of our fighters to lightspeed attack vessels, like my own former TIE fighter."

Brakiss nodded. "We must let our leader make that decision, but he will be greatly pleased to see this new increase in our military capabilities.

Be careful with those components, though," he said sternly. "Make sure that not a single one gets damaged. We cannot afford to squander resources in the Second Impen'um's quest to regain its rightful power."

Qorl nodded and turned away.

"You see, Zekk," Brakiss said, knitting his pale eyebrows together, "we are truly the underdogs in this struggle. Although our movement is small and somewhat hopeless-we know we're right. We are forced to fight for what is ours against a blundering New Republic that continually seeks to rewrite history and force its chaotic ways upon us all."

"We believe that can only lead to galactic anarchy, with everyone following their own ways, invading one another's territories, disturbing people, neither caring nor respecting the rule of order."

Zekk placed his hands on his leather-clad hips. "Okay, but what about freedom? I like being able to do what I want to do."

"We believe in freedom in the Second Imperium-truly we do," Brakis said with great sincerity "But there's a point at which too much freedom causes damage. The races of the galaxy need a road map, a framework of order and control, so they can go about their business and not destroy the dreams of others in their own pursuits."

"You are independent, Zekk. You know what you're doing. But think about all those aimless people displaced by the changes in the galaxy, beings who have nowhere to go, no dreams to follow, no goals... and no one to tell them what to do. You can help to change that."

Zekk wanted to disagree, wanted to refute Brakiss's words, but he couldn't t in o anything to say. He clamped his lips together. Even if he couldn't come up with any good arguments against what Brakiss said, he refused to agree openly.

"No need to give me your answer yet," Brakiss said in a patient voice.

Then he withdrew the flare stick from the pocket of his robe. "Take as long as you need to think about what I've said. I'll show you back to your quarters now."

He handed the flare stick to Zekk, who took it eagerly.

"Spend some time playing with this, if you'd like." Brakiss smiled. "And then we'll talk again."

15.

JAINA SPREAD HER hands in confusion as Peckhum began to describe some of the places where Zekk might have gone. They could spend months combing the underworld of Coruscant, even years, and still never find the dark-haired boy-especially if Zekk didn't want to be found.

"Hang on a second," she interrupted. "Aren't you going to be with us during the search?"

Peckhum shook his head. "New emergency schedule, thanks to that Imperial attack on the Adamant. I have to go right back up to the mirror station tomorrow. Thing is, I'm not sure how to keep the systems running without some major repairs. Now even my comm units are down. Fat lot of good I'd be if Coruscant Central calls a red alert. I sure wish I'd gotten that replacement mult.i.tasking unit Zekk promised."

Jaina felt a wash of indignant defensiveness on the young man's behalf.

"You know Zekk would've brought it to you if he could."

Peckhum looked back at her with a mixture of surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt. "I won't argue with that," he said, "but I can't keep my mirror station running unless something gets fixed, p.r.o.nto."

Lowie spoke through Em Teedee as the three other companions sat restlessly in the open area of Han and Leia's living quarters. "Oh, indeed," the miniature translating droid said. "That's a fine idea." Em Teedee's tinny voice caused the other young Jedi Knights to sit up straighter and look at Lowie. "Why, it doesn't even sound very dangerous."

"What doesn't?" Jaina asked.

"Master Lowbacca suggests that perhaps he and you, Mistress Jaina, along with his uncle Chewbacca-if we can convince him-might accompany Master Peckhum up to his mirror station to see if we can effect temporary repairs."

"That's a kind offer," Peckhum said, "but I don't see how much you could do without a new central mult.i.tasking unit."

Jacen snorted. "I can't remember the last time Jaina wasn't able to whip up some kind of solution. She could probably fix the whole place using nothing but her imagination."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Jaina growled at her brother. Then, knowing what Zekk would have done, she sighed in resignation and smiled at Peckhum. "He's right, you know. I'm sure we can repair enough subsystems to keep you going until we find Zekk. So what are we waiting for?"

"But why should you want to do that?" Peck hum asked.

"You need the help, don't you?" Jaina asked, momentarily confused. She didn't want to admit that Zekk was the real reason she was doing this.

"Besides," she rushed on, "we've been having trouble mapping debris paths in certain areas. Maybe we'll get a better perspective from orbit.

Meanwhile, Jacen, Tenel Ka, Anakin, and Threepio can keep searching for Zekk down here in the places you suggest."

"All right," Peckhum said. "You've got me convinced, but will your parents agree to it?"

Lowie growled a comment. "Master Lowbacca is confident that he can use his powers of persuasion to convince his uncle Chewbacca to accompany us into orbit," Em Teedee said.

Jaina's eyes lit with confident enthusiasm. "If you can do that, Lowie, just leave my parents to me."

Jacen half-closed his eyes, reached out with the Force, and listened for any sign of Zekk in the deserted building. But he heard only the hollow echo of their footsteps as he and Tenel Ka walked through the gloomy corridor.

He clicked on his comlink. "Hey Anakin-it's Jacen"

"Go ahead," his younger brother answered, transmitting from another building.

"Heading into section seven on the map. Nothing to report so far."

"Okay," Anakin said. In the background, Jacen heard Threepio say in a dismayed voice, "I certainly hope we can locate Master Zekk soon. I'm sure I would much rather be at home than inspecting such... unsavory places!"

"I hope we find him soon, too," Jacen said, then clicked off and followed Tenel Ka down the empty hall on the seventy-ninth level of the crumbling building.

The floor was littered with old cartons, canisters, bits of plasteel, and other items too broken-down to be scavenged. Some dry leaves were scattered about as well-though how leaves had come to be in this building, nearly a kilometer below the upper greenhouse levels, Jacen had no idea.

A thin, icy breeze whistled through a crack in the wall, skittering the dead leaves across the floor. The breeze did nothing to dispel the odors of mildew and decay that hung around the old structure, but it did send a chill of apprehension up Jacen's spine. He let his eyes fall half closed again in concentration as he walked slowly along.

Suddenly, something light and warm touched his arm. Jacen's eyes flew open. Tenel Ka's hand rested on the sleeve of his jumpsuit. "I thought you might stumble," she said, pointing at a small pile of rubble ahead of them, where part of the ceiling had given way. In these old buildings, nothing was repaired unless someone planned to use the s.p.a.ce. Floors and ceilings were no exception. If she hadn't stopped him, Jacen would have fallen on his face.

"Thanks," he said with a lopsided grin. "Nice to know you really care."

Tenel Ka blinked once. She stood still beside him, not rising to the bait-or perhaps not noticing it. "It is simpler to prevent an accident than to carry an injured companion."

That wasn't the response Jacen had been hoping for. "Well, hey, I'm glad you didn't have to strain any muscles," he said, kicking at the rocky debris with the toe of one boot and sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"It is not a question of strain." Tenel Ka coughed, but her voice remained detached and gruff. "I could lift you easily, should the need arise." She stepped around the rubble. "But I saw no need."

Jacen followed her, wondering why he always managed to make an idiot of himself in front of the calmly competent Tenel Ka. He grimaced. At least if he had twisted an ankle, he might have had the compensating pleasure of Tenel Ka's arm around him to help him out....

Jacen shoved the surprising mental image aside, realizing that Tenel Ka would probably be aghast if she knew the turn his thoughts had taken.

Besides, the only thing he should be thinking about right now was finding Zekk.

Using a map on their datapad, they tried to be methodical in their search, concentrating on buildings where old Peckhum said Zekk most often did his scavenging. Walking from one end of the building to another, each of them would reach out with Jedi senses, trying to find their friend, looking for any sign that he had been there.

Once they were convinced Zekk was not close, Jacen and Tenel Ka would take the stairs, a turbolift, or a chute-slide a few floors down, and begin a search of the next level. If they again found no trace of Zekk, they would move to the next likely location, using the aerial catwalks that bridged the gaps between buildings. Many of these walkways had not been repaired for hundreds of years, and they creaked as the two young Jedi crossed them.

Anakin and Threepio were doing the same in other buildings. Jacen's younger brother was absolutely delighted to have a break from the golden droid's daily tutoring.

As the day wore on, Jacen grew tired. The longer they spent in the murky lower reaches, the more uncomfortable he grew. A sense of urgency stabbed like a needle at the back of his mind. Zekk had been missing for days, and they had to find him-soon. Before long, it would be too late for the dark-haired boy. He wasn't really sure why, but he knew that it was true.

They searched dozens of buildings and crossed as many walkways, but found no clues. The deeper they descended, though, the more signs of life they found. Low life.

Creatures scuttled past them to hide in every shadowy corner. When corridors were too narrow for them to walk side by side, the two young Jedi took turns leading. Jacen watched Tenel Ka in the light of her glowrod as she headed down another cramped stairwell into the inky darkness. Her reddish-gold braids bounced slightly as she made her quiet descent.

At one point Tenel Ka faltered, then regained her footing and continued her smooth pace.

"Broken stair," she said, turning to point out the rough area. "Be careful."