Tenel Ka attached her grappling hook to the side of the walkway. "I am a
strong climber," she said. "This is a fact."
Zekk rubbed his hands together with delight. "Excellent."
"Let me get the eggs," Jacen said, eager to touch the smooth, warm shells,
to study the nest configuration. "I've always wanted to one up close." This
was such a rare opportunity. Hawk-bats were common in the deep alleyways of
Coruscant, but they were horrendously difficult to capture alive.
Pulling the fibercord taut, Tenel Ka wrapped her hands around it and began
lowering herself to the old construction crawler. Jacen had seen her descend
the walls of the Great Temple on Yavin 4, but now he watched with renewed
amazement as she walked backward down the side of the building, relying only
on the strength of her supple arms and muscular legs. Jacen admired the girl
from Dathomir - but he wished he could make her laugh. He had been telling
Tenel Ka his best jokes for as long as he had known her, but he still hadn't
managed to coax even the smallest smile from her. She seemed not to have a
sense of humor, but he would keep trying.
Tenel Ka reached the construction crawler and anchored the fibercord,
gesturing with her arm to summon him down. Jacen wrapped the cord around
himself and started down the slick wall, trying to imitate Tenel Ka. He used
the Force to keep his balance, nudging his feet when necessary, and soon
found himself standing beside Tenel Ka on the teetering platform.
"Piece of cake," he panted, brushing his hands together.
"No thank you," Tenel Ka said. "I am not hungry." Jacen chuckled, but he
knew the warrior girl didn't even realize she had made a joke.
Lowie slid down the fibercord with ease, while Em Teedee wailed all the way.
"Oh, I can't watch! I'd rather switch off my optical sensors."
When they all stood on the creaking platform, Jacen bent over, straining to
reach the tangled nest just below. "I'm going to climb down there," he said.
"I'll pass the eggs up."
Before anyone could argue, he dropped between two thin girders, holding a
crossbar to reach the piping brace that supported the odd nest. The eggs
were brown, mottled with green, camouflaged as knobs of masonry covered with
pale lichen. Each was about the size of Jacen's outspread hand; when he
touched the warm shells, the texture was hard and rough, like rock. With the
Force, he could sense the growing baby creature inside. Perhaps he could use
the Force to levitate the prize up to his friends. He smiled, tingly with
wonder as he hefted one of the eggs. It wasn't heavy at all. As he touched a
second egg, though, he heard a shrill shriek from above, coming closer.
Tenel Ka shouted a warning. "Look out, Jacen!"
Jacen looked up and saw the sleek form of the mother hawk-bat, swooping down
at him and screaming in fury, metallic claws extended, wings studded with
spikes. The hawk-bat's wingspan was about two meters. Its head consisted
mostly of a horny beak with sharp ivory teeth, ready to tear a victim to
shreds. "Uh-oh," Jacen said.
Lowie bellowed in alarm. Tenel Ka grabbed for a throwing knife - but Jacen
knew he couldn't wait for help. The creature dove toward him like a missile,
and Jacen closed his eyes to reach out with the Force. His special talent
had always been with animals. He could communicate with them, sense their
feelings and express his own to them. "It's all right," he whispered. "I'm
sorry we were invading your nest. Calm. It's all right. Peace."
The hawk-bat pulled up from her dive and clutched one of the corroded lower
crossbars with durasteel-hard claws. Jacen could hear the squeaking sound as
the claws scraped rust off the metal, but he maintained his calm.
"We didn't mean to hurt your babies," he said. "We won't take them all. I
need only one, and I promise you it'll be delivered to a fine and safe place
. . . a beautiful zoo where it will be raised and cared for and admired by
millions of people from across the galaxy."
The hawk-bat hissed and pushed her hard beak closer to Jacen, blowing foul
breath from between sharp teeth. He knew the hawk-bat was extremely
skeptical, but Jacen projected images of a bright aviary, a place where the
freely, yet never need to fear other predators or starvation . . . or being
shot at by gang members. Jacen snatched the last vision - blurred figures of
young humans shooting as she hunted between tall buildings - from the
mother's mind. This last fear convinced the mother, and she flapped her
spiked leathery wings, backing away from the nest and leaving Jacen safe . .
. for the moment. He grinned up at his friends.
Tenel Ka stood poised, dagger in hand, ready to jump down and fight. Jacen
felt a pleasant warm glow to think that she was willing to defend him. He
took the hawk-bat egg he was holding and used the Force to carefully
levitate it into Jaina's hands. She cradled it, then handed it to Zekk.
"What did you do?" Zekk called.
"I made a deal with the hawk-bat," he said. "Let's go."
"But what about those other eggs?" Zekk said, holding his treasure with
great amazement.
"You only get one," Jacen answered. "That was the deal. Now we'd better get
out of here, and hurry." He scrambled up to join Lowie and Tenel Ka.
Lowie climbed the fibercord first, racing up the side of the building to the
upper ledge. Jacen urged the others to greater speed, and finally, when they
were all standing back on the walkway, Zekk said, "I thought you made a deal
with the mother. Why do we have to hurry?"
Jacen continued to hustle them out of sight of the construction crawler.
"Because hawk-bats have extremely short memories."
* 3 *
AS THE FIVE companions left the hawk-bat's nest behind, Jaina stuck close to
Zekk. She watched the dark-haired boy move instinctively, hurrying through
the maze of upper and lower walkways and cross-connecting bridges as he made
a beeline back to his living quarters. The green-eyed boy beamed with
self-congratulatory pride at the precious egg he held, as if it were a
trophy he had hoped to win for a long time.
"Peckhum is going to be so pleased!" Zekk crowed, looking from Jaina to
Jacen. "He'll know just what to do with it. He's got a line on everyone
who's looking for anything." He glanced sidelong at Jacen again. "Don't
worry about it. We'll find a good home for this baby, just like you
promised, Jacen. It shouldn't be too hard for a professional zoologist to
incubate this egg until it hatches."
Tenel Ka cleared her throat and said ominously, "If we bring the egg back
intact."
Jaina suddenly noticed that they had returned to the abandoned levels
emblazoned with gang graffiti. The sharp corners of the cross in a triangle
symbol seemed brighter now, as if freshly painted. Jaina wondered if the
gang members could have marked their territory afresh in the short time
since the young Jedi Knights had passed through. If the gang members kept
such a careful eye out for everything, they might have spotted the five
companions already. Maybe they were watching from hidden, shadowy corners
right now. . .
Tenel Ka tensed and pulled out a small throwing knife, looking from side to
side. She seemed alert, ready to spring at the first sign of danger, but
Jaina didn't feel safe. With her Jedi senses, she felt a tingle down her
spine.
"If the Lost Ones are so tough and powerful, how come we've never heard of
them before?" Jacen looked around nervously in the creaking, musty
buildings.
"Because you never come down here," Zekk answered. "Whenever we get
together, you either have me come to the Imperial Palace or we meet in the
safe upper levels. I'll bet your parents would blow their thrusters if they
knew where we were right now."
"We can take care of ourselves," Tenel Ka said defensively, flashing her
tiny dagger.
"Dear me, I shouldn't be so certain about that, if I were you," Em Teedee
replied from Lowie's waist. The young Wookiee groaned.
Zekk smiled thinly. "Down here you can see how I live every day. I don't
have anyone to wash my hands for me or cook my meals, you know. And I don't
have the luxury of worrying about how to amuse myself. Every day is a
search-I'm just lucky I have a special knack for finding things."
Jaina was surprised to hear a hint of resentment behind her friend's words.
"Zekk, if you needed anything, you should have just asked. We could have
found you new quarters, given you credits to spend-"
"Who said I wanted that?" he responded through clenched teeth. "I don't need
charity. I've got my freedom here. I can do whatever I want. Besides, it's
more satisfying to live by my own wits than to be pampered and coddled all
the time."
Em Teedee piped up, "Well really, Master Zekk! It might interest you to
learn that not everyone minds being pampered and coddled."
Jaina ignored the translating droid and wondered if Zekk really meant what
he said.
"Nothing personal", Zekk said with shrug. He looked up at the
cross-in-triangle symbol. "Being a gang member doesn't impress me either.
Their leader Norys - who's our age - is a big bully who likes to throw his
weight around. I can run my way through the lower levels better than any of
the Lost Ones, so he's been after me to join for a long time. He'd love to
have me as his right-hand man, but I'm too independent for that. I work for
myself."
They stood at the entrance to a sheer-walled building, near one end of a
dilapidated covered walkway that extended to an adjacent skyscraper. More
threatening gang symbols marked the inside walls. Half of the windows were
broken, and confined breezes whispered through the walkway like voices
warning them to go back.
Zekk looked behind him. "This building we're in is the headquarters of the
Lost Ones. We're taking a pretty big risk being here." His emerald eyes
sparkled. "Kind of exciting, isn't it?" The building was large and dark,
filled with cavernous spaces of empty meeting chambers, offices, and
abandoned supply rooms. Jaina wondered if any record or blueprint of this
ancient building still existed in the vast computer archives of the Imperial
Information Center .
"I don't think you have to worry about Norys, though," Zekk said, raising
his voice. "He talks big, but his ambitions are definitely low. He has no
interest in becoming anything more than the biggest bully in a run-down
section of a single building on an average planet in a big galaxy." Zekk's
voice sounded taunting. "He'll never go anywhere, because his dreams are
small."
Just then ceiling panels smashed down from above them, and a dozen wiry
young men and women dropped to the floor. They looked scuffed and dirty,
with hard, lean faces; each held an interesting cobbled-together weapon
scavenged from sharp pieces of scrap.
"You trying to annoy me, trash collector?" the biggest burly young man said.
His face was broad and dark, his eyes close-set, his teeth crooked as he
ground his jaws together and spread his lips in a sneer.
"It's not polite to eavesdrop, Norys," Zekk said.
Then the gang leader's eyes fixed on the precious hawk-bat egg that Zekk
cradled close to his chest. "What has the little trash collector found?"
Norys said. "Hey, everybody! Looks like we're gonna have fresh eggs for
morning meal."
Lowbacca growled loudly enough to startle the Lost Ones, baring his long
Wookiee fangs. Zekk looked suddenly nervous, as if the valuable hawk-bat egg
made him vulnerable in new ways.
"What do you want the egg for?" Jacen said.
"He only wants it because I want it," Zekk said. "He'll probably smash it,
not knowing what it's worth."
Tenel Ka now held a throwing dagger at the ready in each hand. The Lost Ones
looked at her and Lowie, then at the three seemingly easier targets of Zekk
and the twins.
"In a case like this," Zekk said, moving slowly, extending the mottled egg
gradually, as if reluctant to surrender it to the brawny gang member, "the
most sensible idea is to . . . run!" He whirled and dashed onto the rickety
walkway. The vibration of his running knocked loose a broken wall plate,
which dropped silently into the murky depths below. The young Jedi Knights
reacted quickly and scrambled after their friend onto the covered bridge.
The gang members howled and gave pursuit, clattering their crude weapons
against the walls.
Out in the middle of the dilapidated walkway Zekk suddenly pulled to a stop
as a gang member-an angry young woman who looked even tougher than Tenel Ka
appeared from the opposite building and stood ominously at the far entrance.
"We're trapped," Jaina said with a hard gulp.
This did not seem like a good place for a standoff. Zekk looked back and
forth, as if seeking inspiration in the middle of the swaying bridge. The
cold wind sighed through the broken windows and gaps in the flooring. "Just
to be fair, " he said, crossing his arms with feigned good humor, "I'll let
you guys solve this one. Got any ideas?"
Jaina tried to think of something she could do with what Uncle Luke had
taught them at the Jedi academy. With uninterrupted concentration she could
manipulate objects with the Force, but she couldn't think of any way her
fledgling powers could help them escape.
Norys strode forward, his chest puffed with confidence. "Now give me that
egg, trash collector, and maybe we won't throw you over the edge!"
Just then a screeching sound came from above, a blood-curdling animal
shriek. A predator's heavy shadow swept like a dark blanket over the cracked
windows of the walkway. With another loud scream, the mother hawk-bat struck
the side windows, smashing against the wire mesh that barely held the frames
in place. She spat and hissed, her sharp beak ripping at the wires, her
forked tongue thrashing as she dug her claws in, trying to get at Norys. The
gang leader staggered backward with a surprised yelp.
Zekk protected the egg again, holding it to his chest. At the same time,
Lowie-focusing on the lone woman guarding the opposite en
d of the
walkway-let out a ferocious roar and charged forward.
"Oh, my!" Em Teedee squeaked. "Would anyone object if I switched off my
optical sensors again so I don't have to watch?"
Distracted by the attacking hawk-bat and startled by the snarling battering
ram of Wookiee fur, the gang member backed off and leaped aside.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jaina cried.
Zekk ducked low to protect the hawk-bat egg as he ran after her Jacen
followed them, while Tenel Ka turned once to threaten the Lost Ones with her
throwing daggers before bringing up the rear, sprinting along on her
muscular legs.
Seeing them escape, the mother hawk-bat shrieked one more time, then flew
off, as if satisfied.
Zekk kept running while Norys yelled after them. "We'll catch you next time,
trash collector. Do you hear me?" he shouted. "You'll join our gang-one way
or another." Zekk didn't respond as he led the young Jedi Knights through a
maze of stairwells, slides, and lifts in the lower levels, climbing up to
rickety catwalks, then higher to lighted levels. He was panting, but his
flushed face wore a grin of exhilaration. Triumphant, Zekk cradled the
hawk-bat egg close to his body.
"I thought you said hawk-bats had shortened memories," he gasped.
Jacen shrugged and looked sheepish. "Aren't you glad I was wrong?"
"Yes," Jaina said. "We all are."
"Come on," Zekk said. "Let's get this egg back home."