Star Wars: Jedi Prince 2: The Lost City of the Jedi (6 page)

"Figure out what’s wrong with my eyes, Emdee," Trioculus said, gritting his teeth. "Or I will have you taken apart and sold for scrap metal!"

"My Emperor," Grand Moff Hissa interrupted, "we have just received a report from a team of stormtroopers. Near one of the jungle pyramids they spotted an alien-a Ho’Din, to be precise. Almost all Ho’Din know how to work medical miracles using plants and herbs.

They’re a race of healers, your Excellency!"

"Then tell them to capture that Ho’Din," Trioculus said, pressing his gloved hand against his eyes. "He shall figure out how to restore my sight-or I shall have him blinded as well, so he too can share my fate!"

A Healer’s Secret

Ken risked Dee-jay’s wrath to come Topworld again And this time he not only gave Dee-Jay the slip, he ducked away from HC and Chip, too, by convincing both droids to help him with the library research for his latest homework assignment.

The assignment was to write a report on five major planets that had been wiped out by asteroids in the last half million years. HC and Chip were still probably deep in the Jedi Library, walking up and down the aisles trying to find out where the file on destroyed planets had been misplaced, unaware that Ken had hidden it under his bed in his dome-house Retracing his steps from his last trip Topworld Ken soon spied Baji in the forest. The smell of smoke was in the air. And the distant forest fire was approaching.

Ken had never seen a forest fire before, except in holograms and pictures in the Jedi Library. His heart skipped a beat as he watched in horror. So much beauty was being destroyed in the fiery orange glow.

Ken cautiously approached Baji, not wanting to be seen. But perhaps the Ho’Din healer would know where Ken had left his computer notebook. Ken was determined to find it before the droids found out that he had lost it.

"Excuse me, sir," Ken said. "I met you once before, the day Luke Skywalker was here. Do you remember me?"

Baji jumped back, taken by surprise and somewhat startled. He smiled, nodded, and then without saying a word, he hurriedly collected more plants as fast as he could.

"I didn’t mean to scare you," Ken continued. "I was just wondering, did you happen to come across my computer notebook? I think I dropped it somewhere around here."

Baji put a hand on Ken’s shoulder and said:

"Find it I did

In my hut it is hid

Come there with me

And your notebook you shall see."

Picking up a sack that had flowers, plant stems, roots, and seeds, Baji led Ken to his thatch hut.

The little hut was bare. Baji had only a bed of soft leaves and a simple table and chairs.

However, everywhere he looked, Ken saw that the hut was piled high with bottles containing seedling plants. All the bottles and jars were labeled in a language Ken couldn’t read.

Baji kneeled to pick up Ken’s computer notebook. "Thanks, Baji," Ken said. "It was nice of you to save this for me. And the droid who corrects my homework, HC, will sure be happy it’s not lost. HC would really give me a hard time if I told him I’d lost it.

Baji peered through the open door of his hut and looked out at the red glow of flames far away in the forest. He shook his head sadly and frowned. Then he sighed and glanced down, looking away.

Ken stared at the reddish glow shining through the thick forest. There was no doubt about it, the fire was getting closer.

"I know what you’re thinking," Ken said. "If the fire reaches your hut, then all your rare plants will be destroyed."

Baji nodded.

"I wonder how the fire started," Ken said. And the reply was:

"The weapons of the Empire

Did cause this big fire

So now the end is near

For a forest so dear."

"Come home with me," Ken said. "You’d be safer there, underground."

Baji shook his head no.

"My work here is done

From this forest I shall run

My people are on their way

A spaceship comes next day."

"I can see that you’ll be sorry to leave," Ken said. "It’s a shame we haven’t had the time to get to know one another, but I understand. Your home is on another world."

Baji nodded and smiled.

"I’ve got to be going," Ken said, "before the fire gets any closer. May the Force be with you, Baji."

Ken waved good-bye and started walking back in the direction of the green marble wall, where the tubular transport would take him back to the Lost City of the Jedi right away.

Ken wanted to return before HC or Chip or Dee-Jay noticed that he was gone.

Ken glanced back to wave to Baji one more time. Suddenly Ken’s heart thumped wildly. Three Imperial stormtroopers were approaching Baji’s hut!

What was he going to do? Ken’s first impulse was to dash toward them and shout, but he knew better than that. He was sadly outnumbered. And he had no way to defend himself or Baji.

Ken ducked, concealing himself in the foliage. He saw the stormtroopers point their blasters at Baji, capture the helpless Ho’Din healer, and lead him away.

Each of Baji’s two hearts was beating rapidly as the stormtroopers forced him up the ramp of Trioculus’s Imperial strike cruiser. His warm green blood became hot from fear as they led him past the maze of equipment in the control room, and into the private cabin of Emperor Trioculus.

The room was so dimly lit it was hard for Baji to see the face of the Emperor, who was seated on an ornate chair. Grand Moff Hissa smiled politely at Baji, and Emdee stared at Baji as if he were a curiosity.

"At last the Ho’Din is here," Grand Moff Hissa said to the new Emperor.

Trioculus slowly leaned forward. Baji could see the Imperial ruler’s three half-opened eyes. His eyes looked glassy, and the pupils were clouded.

"Ho’Din, if you ever breathe a word of what I’m about to tell you, you’ll never live to see another Yavin Four sunset," Grand Moff Hissa said. "Tell me, are you a healer, like the rest of your people?"

Baji nodded but didn’t speak.

"I command you to answer!" Trioculus shouted in a hoarse voice.

Suddenly realizing that Trioculus was unable to see, Baji replied:

"For the sick and weak do I care

Be they powerful or meek, old or fair."

"They tell me you’re a Ho’Din," Trioculus said, "but at the moment, I can’t tell. My eyes have betrayed me. I order you to heal me!"

"This is the most powerful patient you’ve ever had, Ho’Din," Grand Moff Hissa explained.

"He commands the Empire. He is the ruler of the galaxy. Your life is in his hands."

Baji leaned forward and stared cautiously at Trioculus’s glazed eyeballs. Then he noticed the glove Trioculus was wearing on his right hand. Baji kneeled down and touched it.

Quickly Trioculus pulled his hand away.

"I asked you to examine my eyes, Ho’Din, not the glove of Darth Vader," Trioculus said.

"Now heal me, understand?"

Baji replied:

"The glove you wear

Brings blindness and gloom

Remove it now

For it seals your doom."

"This glove has doomed many men, Ho’Din," Trioculus said, sneering. "Men who have angered me. But it will never doom me."

Baji replied:

"Since Darth Vader’s glove

You now do wear

Blind you are

And next goes your hair

Take off the glove

Or there is no doubt

Your teeth and nails

Shall all fall out

Your hands will rot

Your face will welt

Loud you shall scream

As in terror you melt."

"I should have your eyes plucked out for saying that!" Trioculus exclaimed.

"Master," said Emdee, "the Ho’Din makes a medical point-one that did occur to me. The devices I inserted into the glove’s fingertips so that you could send out deadly sound waves might possibly be the cause of your side effects."

"Go on, Emdee," Trioculus said, gritting his teeth, "continue."

"The sonic charges in the devices are probably causing damage to your nerve endings, affecting the optic nerves in your eyes."

"Perhaps you should consider taking off the glove, my Dark Lordship," Grand Moff Hissa said. "It’s worth a try."

Reluctantly, Trioculus removed the glove of Darth Vader. Grand Moff Hissa and Baji couldn’t help but gasp when they saw Trioculus’s right hand-it was all red, blistered, and withered. And just as Baji had warned, the flesh on his hand had already begun to rot.

Trioculus blinked. The yellow, glassy look slowly faded from his eyes. "I can almost make out the shape of your face, Ho’Din," Trioculus said in a hoarse, deep voice.

"Your Excellency!" Grand Moff Hissa said. "The Ho’Din healer has brought back your eyesight!"

Baji reached into his pocket and took out a few kibo seeds-all that he had. He placed them in Trioculus’s raw and withered hand. Then said:

"Eat the seeds of the purple flower

Or your sight shall lose its power

To be fully cured you must feed

For a hundred days upon the kibo seed."

Trioculus chewed and swallowed the kibo seeds. Moments later, his face brightened and his eyes cleared. A faint smile formed at the corners of his lips as his vision was slowly restored.

"Ho’Din, your medicine is impressive," Trioculus said. "I now see better than ever. Tell me, where can I get enough kibo seeds to eat them for a hundred days?"

Baji sadly lowered his head.

"Kibo flowers, so very rare

Will soon be found nowhere

For the flames that you have spread

Shall soon make all kibo plants dead."

"What is he saying, Hissa?" asked Trioculus. "I can’t follow all of this Ho’Din’s rhyming!"

"If I understand him correctly," the grand moff replied, "the kibo flower is very rare-nearly extinct. And your decision to burn the rain forests is about to destroy the last of them. You must eat their seeds for a hundred days, or-"

"Go on!" Trioculus said. "Then what?"

Emdee finished the sentence for the grand moff, who was too frightened to say any more.

"Then, Master, you will go blind once again," Emdee said. "This time probably forever."

Once more Baji spoke:

"In my hut I have seeds in store

Enough for all your needs and more

But my hut soon shall burn

Tell me, why does the Empire never learn?"

Panicked, Trioculus ordered Baji to lead them back to his hut at once. The fire Trioculus had caused was about to destroy the last of the rare plants that were the only cure for his blindness!

Quickly they walked down the ramp of the Imperial strike cruiser and climbed aboard a mobile jungle transport vehicle. Baji gave directions. As they neared his hut, the flames were rapidly approaching, threatening to destroy the entire area.

Trioculus got out of the vehicle and hurried on foot toward Baji’s hut. Suddenly one of the dozens of TNTs came roaring through the forest on its fast moving treads, firing its neutron torches.

"No, stop!" Trioculus shouted, as it aimed its front gun right at Baji’s hut. "Stop, I command you!"

But the stormtroopers inside the TNT couldn’t hear the Emperor. The TNT fired again, and Baji’s dry, thatch hut started crackling as it burned.

A very desperate Trioculus went running into the fiery hut to save the kibo plants and seeds. But as he clutched them in his hands and tried to escape the hut, the doorway was blocked by a wall of flame.

The Secret Code of Obi-Wan Kenobi

"If the fires in the rain forest are not contained," Princess Leia said to the members of SPIN, "then this moon of Yavin will face disaster. The rain forests are the source of our oxygen essential for the air we breathe. And thousands of medicines used throughout the galaxy are made from the rare species of plants that can only be found in these forests.

There has been an invasion by a ruthless mutant-a three-eyed slavelord named Trioculus who calls himself the new Imperial Emperor. He is destroying our forests because he is on some insane mission to find the entrance to the Lost City of the Jedi. This evil madman must be stopped!"

With those words, the Rebel Alliance sprang into action. While Alliance fire fighters tried to put out the raging forest blaze, the Millennium Falcon, with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca aboard, searched for Trioculus’s jungle base.

"I should be putting the finishing touches on my sky house right now, but instead, I’m stuck piloting the Falcon on another crazy mission for the Alliance," Han complained.

Not far behind them was a group of Alliance Y-wing starfighters. Their job: To destroy Trioculus’s encampment and spaceships, giving the tyrannical dictator no hope of escape from Yavin Four.

The Millennium Falcon soared over the path of the spreading fire and followed it to its source. Soon Luke Skywalker located a clearing. Trioculus had taken over a Bantha grazing pasture that had been cut out of the jungle. His Imperial strike cruiser was on the ground, surrounded by a group of Imperial escort carriers. The tread marks of dozens of TNTs led away from the escort carriers in all directions.

"There’s his base!" Luke said, communicating with the pilots of the Y-wings. "Go to it!"

As the Y-wings started destroying the grounded Imperial spaceships, the Millennium Falcon fired well-aimed laserblasts at a group of TNTs, taking them out one at a time.

The TNTs didn’t just sit around waiting to be destroyed. They started firing back a barrage of neutron fireballs, blasting away at the low-flying Millennium Falcon. Han and Chewie had no choice but to guide the Falcon to an emergency landing in the forest below.

It was the worst landing of Han’s career. The Falcon was unstable and shaking. It ripped through a maze of tall trees and thick vines, bouncing and sliding as it cut a gouge in the forest floor. "Arrrrroowgh!" Chewie moaned, knowing that the Falcon was now in desperate need of repair.

"Tough break, Chewie," Han agreed after the ship came to a stop. "The Falcon’s in trouble."

Luke, Han, and Chewie made a quick exit from their spaceship. The scent of smoke was everywhere, and they could hear the explosions of neutron fireballs in the distance.