Star Wars: Jedi Prince 2: The Lost City of the Jedi (5 page)

Grand Moff Hissa interrupted. "It was the secret judgment of the Central Committee of Grand Moffs that Triclops, the Emperor’s son, was both mad and criminally insane. He was a menace to everyone he ever met, friend and foe alike."

"A very unfortunate situation," Kadann agreed, nodding his head.

"After Emperor Palpatine died in the explosion of the Death Star, those of us grand moffs who knew of the Emperor’s wishes had to do something to protect what was left of the Empire," Grand Moff Hissa continued. "Did we dare let his son Triclops lead us-a son he had banished? Why if Triclops were ever put in command, I have no doubt that he would have destroyed us all-every grand moff, grand admiral . . . and every Prophet of the Dark Side!

In fact, we grand moffs believe that if ever Triclops is allowed to sit on his father’s throne, he’ll destroy the galaxy, planet by planet, until there is nothing remaining."

The black-bearded dwarf said nothing. He sat on his prophet’s chair silently, stroking his beard.

"So you see, Kadann, we were in desperate need of a new leader," Hissa went on. "We couldn’t keep fighting among ourselves, warlord against warlord. The lower-ranking officers and common stormtroopers knew there were rumors that a three-eyed son existed who had a legal right to his father’s throne. And so-"

"So you decided your new leader had to be a man with three eyes," Kadann said, completing Grand Moff Hissa’s sentence. "Someone the grand moffs thought they could trust. One who could claim to be the Emperor’s son without arousing any suspicions."

"Exactly!" Grand Moff Hissa said, breathing a sigh of relief. "That’s why we asked Trioculus, Slavelord of Kessel, to claim to be Emperor Palpatine’s son and to serve as our new Imperial leader. Trioculus understands full well that the Central Committee of Grand Moffs is the real power behind the throne."

"I have fulfilled your prophecy, Kadann," Trioculus said in a confident voice. "You foretold that the next Emperor would wear the glove of Darth Vader. And as you can see, I wear it."

Trioculus held out his right hand, thrusting the glove of Darth Vader toward Kadann.

"If you have any doubts that this is the glove of Darth Vader," Trioculus said, "then see for yourself."

Kadann touched the glove and inspected it closely. "I recognize it," he said.

"So then you are satisfied that Trioculus has fulfilled your prophecy about the next Imperial ruler?" Hissa asked.

"He has indeed. The man who wears the glove of Darth Vader shall be our Emperor." Kadann then picked up the silver ball and spoke again. "But there is another prophecy about the one who wears the glove-" Kadann stopped himself in midsentence and fell silent.

"What is it?" Trioculus insisted.

Kadann squeezed the silver ball of chalk until it crumbled to dust. "Silver is the symbol of a Jedi Prince. There is a Jedi Prince from the Lost City of the Jedi who can destroy you."

Trioculus sneered in disbelief. "The Lost City of the Jedi is only a legend!"

"A legend only to those who don’t know the truth. For it does exist. And you, Emperor Trioculus, must find the Jedi Prince who lives there, or you will not rule for much longer." Kadann now raised his right hand and pointed his forefinger upward, as though uttering a commandment. "This is your destiny. Find the Jedi Prince and destroy him-or he will destroy you!"

Trioculus frowned in dismay.

"And where is this Lost City of the Jedi?" Grand Moff Hissa asked.

"There are four continents on the fourth moon of Yavin," Kadann replied. "The Lost City is on the largest continent, deep beneath the ground, under the rain forest. Look for a round wall made of green marble in the forest. There you will find the entrance to the city. But you must find it soon. Very soon."

"I shall," Trioculus said, putting his hands on his hips triumphantly. "Not only shall I destroy the Jedi Prince, but as ruler of the Empire, I shall rid the galaxy of Luke Skywalker and the entire Rebel Alliance."

"Well spoken, Emperor Trioculus." And with that Kadann leaned forward and kissed the glove Trioculus wore. "You have my dark blessing," he said.

Trioculus smiled. It was one of the first real smiles of his life. However, it was cut short by a stabbing pain in the center of his head. Everything then became blurry and dim.

Emperor Trioculus could see only dull blobs of light, shadows, and streaks of gray-and nothing more.

Trioculus remained still, blinking his three eyes. Within moments his vision came back to him and he could see clearly once again. Following on the heels of Grand Moff Hissa, he departed from the Chamber of Dark Visions. He acted as if nothing happened. It was a perfect act. He didn’t tell anyone-not even his trusted droid, Emdee.

A short while later, as Trioculus stood in the control room of his Imperial strike cruiser and looked out at the vastness of space, his thoughts were millions of miles away. He was thinking about Yavin Four and its vast rain forests. "How can I find the Lost City of the Jedi?" he wondered aloud.

"Someone on Yavin Four must know where the Lost City is," Grand Moff Hissa said. "The question is, who?"

"Perhaps Luke Skywalker or SPIN knows," replied Trioculus in an icy voice.

"Yes, SPIN, of course," said Grand Moff Hissa, referring to the Senate’s Planetary Intelligence Network. His eyebrows shot upward as he suddenly got an idea. "I think you should send those Rebels an ultimatum-a warning so terrible that they won’t be able to ignore it."

A few days later on Yavin Four, where the next meeting of SPIN was about to take place, Princess Leia and Han Solo were already seated in the conference room, waiting for Luke Skywalker. Han was so enjoying seeing Leia again that he’d put off his return to Bespin with Chewbacca.

"Han, I’m worried about Luke," Leia said. "He promised me he was going to show up on time for the SPIN meeting today."

"I’m worried too," Han said. "Have you noticed how strange he’s been acting lately?"

"Luke has been acting different," Leia agreed. "The way he went off on his airspeeder the other day."

"Yeah," Han agreed. "Since when does he take mysterious journeys over the jungle, without any idea of where he’s going?"

"He does things like that when he feels the pull of the Force," Princess Leia replied.

"And now he’s obsessed with finding a boy he says is from the Lost City of the Jedi."

"I think he’s gone off the deep end," Han said with concern. "Luke never used to believe in the Lost City of the Jedi. He told me that because Obi-Wan and Yoda never mentioned it, then it must be only a legend. But suddenly he’s convinced that it does exist-and he thinks the Force is going to lead him to it."

At that moment, Luke hurried in to join the other SPIN members in the Senate conference room. "Sorry I’m late," he said, out of breath.

"Same excuse as usual?" Leia asked.

"Afraid so," Luke admitted. "I was on my airspeeder again, searching for Ken. Still no luck."

The SPIN meeting started with a report by Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma on the problem of Imperial probe droids. "There’s a new danger to SPIN," she explained. "Several enemy probe droids have recently penetrated Yavin Four’s Air Defense Network. They’ve been spotted hovering over the jungle, as if searching for something. But their purpose is still unknown."

EEEE-AAAAA-EEEEE-AAAAA .. .

An alarm siren sounded in the Senate. Security had been violated.

KCHOOOOING! KCHOOOOING!

In the SPIN conference room the sound of laser blasts could be heard coming from the big defensive laser cannons on the domed roof of the building.

BRACHOOOOM!

The laser cannons must have missed their target, because something crashed right through the roof. Luke looked up to see a very small, perfectly round, black Imperial device flying under its own power. It zoomed around the SPIN conference room like a tossed ball.

Then it hovered in front of everyone.

Han Solo raised his blaster and fired once .. . twice . . .

But the black Imperial device kept dodging his blasts with short, sudden movements, continuing to hover in midair.

From inside his Imperial strike cruiser orbiting Yavin Four, Trioculus watched what was taking place. The floating device was transmitting the scene inside the Senate, and Trioculus could see it on a screen from inside his navigation room.

He saw every SPIN member in the conference room. Above all he saw Luke Skywalker join Han Solo, in the attempt to destroy the floating Imperial probe device.

Then Trioculus saw the face of Princess Leia. "That face . . ." he said to Grand Moff Hissa. "That woman . . ."

"Princess Leia," the grand moff confirmed.

"A first-degree renegade and troublemaker," Trioculus said, nodding.

"Darth Vader blew up her home planet of Alderaan, so he could teach her the importance of cooperating with the Empire," Grand Moff Hissa commented. "But she never learned."

"She has a striking face," said Trioculus. "Strong features, but soft. Not at all unattractive, considering that she’s a Rebel Alliance woman with only two eyes."

"She’s very dangerous," Grand Moff Hissa continued. "She murdered Jabba the Hutt. Choked him to death with the chain that kept her prisoner."

"I never liked Jabba the Hutt," Trioculus said. "A disgusting, fat slug-and a common gangster."

The spherical device was programmed by remote control, automatically dodging the weapons that were firing at it. As Trioculus watched the screen, he saw Luke Skywalker returning his blaster to his holster and drawing his lightsaber. Skywalker, the Jedi Knight whom Trioculus had vowed to destroy, would finally die at last, in just a few moments . . .

that is, unless Luke Skywalker knew where the Lost City of the Jedi could be found and was prepared to reveal the information at once. Then Trioculus would see fit to spare Skywalker’s life, at least for the time being.

As Skywalker tried to strike the sphere with his blazing lightsaber, it continued to jump away. Then it projected a hologram.

The members of SPIN watched in astonishment as the image of Trioculus appeared before them.

"Attention, Luke Skywalker and members of SPIN," the image of Trioculus said, "if by any chance you deluded yourselves into thinking that I perished back on Calamari, I’m sorry to have to disappoint you. I’ve just sent you a little gift that has penetrated your weak security system-this Imperial Antisecurity Device. It is armed with an explosive of awesome power. In just twenty seconds I shall detonate it and destroy the entire Rebel Alliance Senate. However, to show my good will, I hereby agree to spare your lives if one of you announces at once the location of the entrance to the Lost City of the Jedi. The twenty seconds now begins. One . . . two . . ."

By remote control, Trioculus deactivated the hologram projector inside the device. From far away in space he was still able to watch the scene inside the SPIN conference room-a scene of desperate attempts to destroy the floating black sphere.

"I doubt we’ll get any information out of them," Grand Moff Hissa said. "It’s obvious they’re more interested in fighting than in talking."

"Commodore Zuggs, activate the heat mechanism in the Antisecurity Device," Trioculus ordered. "It will require ten seconds to reach detonation temperature."

"Heat mechanism activated, sir," Zuggs stated, wiping a thin line of sweat that was flowing from the top of his clean-shaven head.

The view on the screen turned bright red as the device began to overheat. Five seconds to zero ... four seconds to zero .. .

At two seconds to zero Luke’s Jedi powers served him well. Directing his intense concentration at the black sphere, he forced it to stop darting back and forth in midair so it was no longer a moving target. As it remained steady and still, Luke sliced it in two with his lightsaber.

KECHUNKKK!

The detonator was in shambles, unable to trigger the explosion.

Out in space, inside Trioculus’s strike cruiser, the Imperial ruler scowled when he saw that his first plan for finding the Lost City of the Jedi had failed.

"Proceed to Plan Number Two," Trioculus said. "The search and destroy mission!"

The sky over the rain forest turned deep purple with the onset of twilight. However, the beautiful sky was the last thing on Trioculus’s mind as he landed on Yavin Four with a large fleet of escort carriers. The escort carriers were filled with enough TNTs to carry out his Plan Number Two.

TNT was short for Treaded Neutron Torch-a treaded, tanklike vehicle that could torch the rain forest by shooting neutron fireballs. TNTs could ride right through the most intense, blazing fire, without any harm to the stormtroopers riding inside.

As soon as Trioculus gave the order, the TNTs began to go into action over a wide area.

They started to torch the rain forest on the biggest continent of Yavin Four, shooting neutron fireballs everywhere. The TNTs filled the air with fire and smoke, and began to turn the forest into a heap of ash and charred timber!

"When the rain forests have all been destroyed, we’ll find the entrance to the Lost City easily," Grand Moff Hissa explained. "We’ll be able to locate the round wall of green marble from the air."

With Grand Moff Hissa following close behind him, Trioculus walked down the ramp of his Imperial strike cruiser. He wanted to see the action firsthand.

Looking around, he stared at the orange glow of flames and the billowing black clouds. And then the roar of a neutron fireball almost deafened him.

He gasped and pressed the glove of Darth Vader to his face. As he rubbed his eyes his right hand inside the glove ached. But the ache of his hand was the least of his worries.

When Trioculus opened his eyes he was now totally blind. He could no longer see even a dim haze or shadowy flicker of light. This was a darkness as pitch-black as a starless region of deep space.

The droid, Emdee, examined the new Emperor’s eyes in the seclusion of Trioculus’s private cabin on board his spaceship. He was unable to find any sign that Trioculus’s eyes had been scorched by the fire or damaged in any way. Emdee confessed that this case was beyond his medical knowledge.