Star Wars - 215 - Jedi Prince 06 - Prophets of the Dark Side (6 page)

When its door eventually slid open again, Kadann, realizing that no one could stop him now from reaching his goal, peered out at the cavern of the Lost City. For the first time he viewed with awe the many dome-houses and winding streets filled with caretaker droids at work.

Ken and the Imperials marched down a street made from green marble. When they passed Ken’s dome-house at 12 South Jedi Lane, where Ken used to live, Zeebo the mooka leaped out of a window and came running up to Ken, jumping into his arms and lapping his face. Ken hugged his furry, feathery pet as hard as he could. Ken then suddenly felt a strange sensation, as though he were just beginning to wake up to what he had done.

"Put the animal down," Kadann commanded.

Zeebo suddenly leaped from Ken’s arms and attacked Kadann, snapping and biting at him. Kadann tossed the mooka to the ground and kicked the alien animal. "Ksssshhhhh," Zeebo moaned, limping away as a stormtrooper followed after him.

"Leave Zeebo alone!" Ken shouted.

But the stormtrooper pulled out a stun-blaster and fired a stun-beam at Ken’s pet. Zeebo suddenly became motionless.

"What have you done to him? You monsters!" Ken screamed. Ken tried to run toward Zeebo, but two stormtroopers stopped him, grabbing Ken by the arms. The Jedi Prince struggled, but they dragged him along, following Kadann in the march over to North Jedi Lane.

When they arrived at the Jedi Library, the forces of Kadann entered the hallowed building. The hard boots of the stormtroopers stomped across the sleek, shiny floor, leaving behind ugly scrape marks.

Ken’s eyes fell upon Dee-Jay, who was seated in a corner of the room near a case containing glittering relics of the Jedi Knights.

"Ken? What-Why did you lead them here?" Dee-Jay asked, his ruby-red eyes shining as he stared at the boy he had dutifully raised. "Why have you led the Empire to the most sacred place of the Jedi Knights?"

Ken’s eyes grew moist as he searched for an answer. "I had to, Dee-Jay! They would have killed Luke if I had refused."

"Silencer Kadann ordered. Then he turned to the tall, ancient droid. "You knew this day would come, didn’t you, Dee-Jay?" Kadann said. "You’ve studied all of my prophecies." Dee-Jay nodded. "Yes, I studied them. But I concluded that your prophecies about the Lost City of the Jedi had almost no probability of coming true." Kadann spoke in a faraway-sounding, deep and mystical voice:

"When the jedi Knight

Becomes a captive of Scardia,

Then shall the Jedi Prince

Betray the Lost City."

Kadann then turned to the Imperial intelligence agent. "Activate the computer!" In a moment the computer was on-line, its menu of Jedi lore and knowledge filling the central screen. Kadann spent a few silent moments studying the blueprints of several Rebel Alliance fortresses, including DRAPAC, the Defense Research and Planetary Assistance Center located atop Mount Yoda on the planet Dagobah.

"Your most protected installations shall soon suffer an Imperial assault-an assault more powerful and effective than any we have launched against you before," Kadann declared. "It will mean the end of the Rebel Alliance once and for all-in one fiery explosion!" Then Kadann turned to Ken. "And now," he said, "it is time for you to learn the true secret of your parentage."

"Now you’ll understand, Ken," Dee-Jay explained, "why all of us droids in this Jedi city believed you should never be told the truth about who you are until you became a grown man-old enough to accept the truth." Dee-Jay’s ruby eyes grew dimmer as he fell into silence.

Kadann turned to Ken. "Though you were born with the blood of a Jedi," he explained, "your hunch that Obi-Wan Kenobi is your father is quite mistaken. You are no relation of Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are named Ken after your mother." Kadann glanced at the intelligence agent, narrowing his eyes to mere slits. "Call up the file on Kendalina." In a moment, Ken saw the face of a beautiful, dark-haired woman on the computer screen.

"Kendalina was a Jedi Princess who was captured by Imperials," Kadann explained. "She was forced to pledge allegiance to the Empire, and she was assigned to work for many years as an Imperial nurse on the planet Kessel, deep in the spice mines." Now the screen showed a picture of the building in the spice mines where Kendalina worked: The Imperial Insane Asylum of Kessel.

"That’s where she met the man who became your father, Ken," Dee-Jay interrupted. "He was an Imperial prisoner, considered insane because he said he was a pacifist who believed in disarmament instead of war. He has three eyes. Two at the front of his head. One at the back."

"This is your father-" Kadann revealed. Suddenly the screen showed a portrait of Triclops!

Ken felt his heart skip several beats as his throat constricted.

"You inherited many of your mother’s features, Ken," Dee-Jay explained. "You have a natural talent for the Jedi arts and skills, like she did. You have her brown hair and her eyes. Fortunately, you didn’t inherit your father’s gene for a third eye, and you weren’t born a mutant like he was. Now you know that you really do have Jedi blood in your veins-but you are also descended from the royal blood of the Empire!" Ken’s arms, limp and drained of all strength, dropped to his sides.

"Behold-your grandfather!" Kadann declared.

On the screen Ken saw the image of Emperor Palpatine, sitting on a throne in the Death Star, the Emperor’s face looking twisted, tortured, and evil.

"It can’t be true!" Ken exclaimed. "Please, no, it isn’t true!" Losing control of his emotions, Ken struck the old, metal droid, pounding on Dee-Jay’s chest and screaming out, "No, no . . ."

Dee-Jay calmly gripped Ken’s wrists, saying sternly, "Be still! Why do you think you were brought to us, Ken? Because your mother wanted you to have a chance to overcome your grandfather’s ways of darkness and evil. That’s why we were chosen to raise you," Dee-Jay explained, "so that, under the guidance and teaching of the caretaker droids of the Lost City, your Jedi heritage could win out over the Dark Side that is also a part of your heritage."

"I’ve heard enough from that droid," Kadann declared. "Deactivate him!"

"NOOOOO!" Ken screamed.

But the Imperial intelligence agent opened a panel in Dee-Jay’s back and swiftly deactivated him, leaving the old droid motionless and silent. Miles above, on the surface of Yavin Four, Luke Skywalker, who was being held under armed guard in a chamber aboard the Scardia Voyager, finally felt that the effects of the stun-beam had worn off. Himself once again, Luke sensed a disturbance in the Force. The disturbance seemed to be coming from deep within the fourth moon of Yavin. It was a terrible feeling, a gnawing sensation that hinted at catastrophe for the Lost City. Then, as he closed his eyes and concentrated deeply, Luke intuitively realized that his sister, Princess Leia, was nearby. Surely that meant that an Alliance rescue mission was approaching.

Now that the stun-beam had worn off, Luke knew that the time had come for him to make his move. The first step was to free his hands from the Imperial wrist-cuffs that bound him. It took a little longer than usual, but Luke was able to put himself in total harmony with the Force, focusing his concentration on the metal lock at his wrists. Slowly the metal parts within the lock began to move.

CLIIIICK!

His hands were free! Luke concentrated now on clouding the minds of his captors.

"You lazy fools," Luke said to the armed guards. "Where is my tea that I asked for half an hour ago?"

"What tea?" the stormtrooper in charge asked.

"When Kadann asks for tea, he expects tea!" Luke demanded, using the old Jedi mind trick that his master Obi-Wan Kenobi had taught him. "Do you think the Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side likes to be kept waiting?"

"Of course not, Kadann," the stormtrooper apologized. He then turned to a companion. "How come you haven’t brought Kadann his tea?"

It was working! Luke pushed harder, clouding the minds of every guard in the room and placing them in a state of extreme mental confusion.

"Never mind, I’ll get it myself," Luke said. "Open the door and stay here."

"Yes, Kadann!" the stormtrooper in charge replied. As the door was unlocked for him, Luke sensed that something was luring him toward a room three doors down the cold, gray hallway. Was danger awaiting him from that room? He quieted his mind and discovered that it was a sensation of attraction, not repulsion. He had nothing to fear from whatever was inside.

Quietly and quickly, Luke slid open the door. There his eyes were greeted by display cases containing some of Kadann’s most priceless captured relics. And in the center was a new addition to this little museum of valuables. The sign above the display case read: LUKE SKYWALKER’S LIGHTSABER. And then, in smaller letters: THIS IS THE LIGHTSABER THAT CUT OFF THE RIGHT HAND OF DARTH VADER INSIDE THE IMPERIAL DEATH STAR. Luke reached out his hand, beckoning the lightsaber to come toward him, just as he had once done on the ice-planet Hoth inside the cave of a Wampa creature. The lightsaber rattled on its small stand, then struck the inside of the glass case, splintering it. As Luke concentrated even harder, the lightsaber once again smashed against the glass, then flew past the sharp jagged edges of broken glass and zoomed toward his outstretched hand. Drawn toward him by a mysterious mental magnetic attraction that only a Jedi Knight could understand, the lightsaber was soon in his grasp. Luke turned it on, its glowing green blade stretching outward to defend him. Then Luke reentered the hall and crouched behind the large, rectangular engine-cooling module. He glanced toward the rear of the Scardia Voyager, certain that the Alliance assault would come in any second from that direction.

Luke was right! A Rebel Alliance assault team moved a garrison of equipment into position, creating an ion force field to shield themselves against the weapons of the Scardia Voyager. Led by Alliance leader Mon Mothma, and Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, See-Threepio, and Artoo-Detoo, the Rebels used a captured Imperial TNT-a treaded neutron torch to punch a gaping hole in the aft of the golden Imperial spaceship. Then the Alliance staged a lightning charge.

Luke joined the action, working his way through the Scardia Voyager, using his lightsaber to swiftly defeat every stormtrooper who stood in his way. The Prophets of the Dark Side on board were quickly overpowered.

"Luke, that’s the last time we send you out after macaab mushrooms," Han said, when they were safely outside the ship. "That was supposed to be a quick and easy trip, remember?"

"How did you find me?" Luke asked, giving his sister Leia a hug.

"A rather simple computation," the familiar voice of See-Threepio chimed in, as the golden droid came over to greet his master. "Artoo and I freed Chewbacca from the tentacle-bush after you and Ken were captured. Chewbacca then flew us back from that mushroom planet. We watched as the Imperial command speeder took you to the Scardia Voyager, and we continued tracking you all the way to Yavin Four, sending the coordinates on your flight movements back to SPIN!"

"Groooaaawwwwf!" Chewbacca moaned, congratulating himself on his contribution to their valiant rescue.

"BdoobzOOOp!" Artoo-Detoo added, popping out from behind the captured Imperial TNT. He spun his dome back and forth, demonstrating his enthusiasm at seeing Luke.

"Excellent work, Chewie-and you droids did a good job too!" Luke exclaimed. "But our work isn’t finished yet. Kadann has gone down into the Lost City of the Jedi, and he has Ken hostage!"

Luke led his friends to the nearby green, circular marble wall. He attempted to operate the tubular transport, trying to make it depart from down in the Lost City and come to the surface again. But the controls didn’t respond.

"At this rate, we’ll never get down there to rescue Ken," Han Solo said.

"I have an idea!" Luke exclaimed. They hurried back to the captured Imperial TNT. Luke climbed inside, searching. Finally he came out, holding a long gray canister. He opened it, revealing a protective outfit that was designed as a heat shield. It even included a helmet. "Han, the climate of this planet is controlled by steam vents, remember? Those vents go from down in the Lost City all the way up to the surface. If I can’t get down the tubular transport, then I’ll slide down a steam vent-wearing this!" Luke held up the heat-resistant clothing. "I’ll end up in the Lost City, at the Weather and Climate Control Center," Luke added excitedly.

"Sounds crazy to me," Han said.

"Totally crazy," Princess Leia agreed.

"But it’s our only hope," Luke replied confidently. "We don’t have any other choice!" With help from Artoo-Detoo, whose heat sensors could detect steam from far away, they located the nearest steam vent deep in the jungle. Then they removed the grating that covered it.

When Luke peered down into the endless hole, he started to have second thoughts about his plan. He knew that Hologram Fun World had a ride through a black tube that twisted its way through a mile of darkness. But scary as that ride was, it was more like a slide. However, Luke realized that this ride would be more like a tumbling fall-and straight down for most of the way, with only the clouds of rising, hot steam to slow his descent!

Luke didn’t want to go through with it. But then he thought of Ken. And a moment later, he closed his eyes, held his breath, and made the leap!

When Luke opened his eyes, he couldn’t see the steam, but he could feel and hear it through his heat-protection outfit. The steam hissed and pushed against him like a blast of scalding air, as he plunged into the endless darkness.

"You have great potential in the Dark Side, Ken," Kadann said to the boy, as Ken stared sadly at Dee-Jay’s darkened eyes. "I can see that now. The Supreme Prophet of the Dark Side can never be wrong. But perhaps once .

. . just once . I did make an error. That was when I urged Trioculus to find and destroy you. I know now that through your blood-the blood of Emperor Palpatine-you will one day lead the future generations of the Empire!"

"Never!" Ken declared firmly.

"Seize him!" Kadann ordered, gesturing to two stormtroopers who promptly overpowered Ken. They took Ken out of the Jedi Library and dragged him up the path as he kicked and struggled.