Kevin Anderson - Star Wars: The Jedi Academy: Champions of the Force

On a bier at the end of the room lay Luke Skywalkerlike a body stretched out for a funeral.

Leias heart thumped with dread. She wanted to turn around and leave so she wouldnt have to look at himbut Leia found her feet carrying her forward. She walked with a rapid step that became a run before she reached the end of the promenade. Han came carrying the twins, one in each arm. His eyes were red as he fought to keep tears from flowing. Leia already felt a wetness on her cheeks.

Luke lay in repose, swathed in his Jedi robe. His hair had been combed; his hands were folded across his chest. His skin looked gray and plasticlike.

Oh, Luke, Leia whispered.

She reached out to touch him. Using her abilities with the Force, she tried to reach deeper, to brush against his life forcebut she felt only a cold hole, an emptiness, as if Luke himself had been taken away.

Not dead.

He could not be dead.

CHAMPIONS OF THE FORCE
A Bantam Spectra Book / October 1994

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eISBN: 978-0-307-79613-4

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v3.1

To my stepson and
research buddy
JONATHAN MACGREGOR COWAN,
who helped me see
a galaxy far, far away through
a childs sense of wonder

Much of this novel was written at the Montecito Sequoia Lodge in the redwood forests of California. Lillie Mitchell, my typist, somehow kept up with all the microcassettes I dumped on her and egged me to greater speed by asking What happens next? My wife, Rebecca Moesta Anderson, provided brainstorming and late-night walks to help iron out plot problems, as well as giving her personal support and love. Tom Veitch helped me work out the background of Exar Kun and the Dark Lords of the Sith, which weve written into a twelve-issue saga for Dark Horse Comics. My editor, Tom Dupree, trusted me to deliver everything on time and in good shape (and he even enjoyed the story!); his assistant, Heather McConnell, kept a million things under control at once and refrained from hanging up on me whenever I called to pester her. Lucy Wilson at Lucasfilm helped make this and all of my other Star Wars stories possible, and her assistant, Sue Rostoni, managed to keep the different projects from crashing headlong into each other. In our many discussions Ralph McQuarrie provided a lot more inspiration than he will admit, including designing the temple of Exar Kun and other parts of the Jedi academy. West End Games, as usual, provided an enormous amount of valuable reference material on all aspects of the Star Wars universe. Most of all, I owe thanks to George Lucas for creating such a wonderful universe and for letting me play in it.

T he Sun Crusher plunged into the Caridan system like an assassins knife into an unsuspecting heart.

Old beyond his years, Kyp Durron sat hunched over the controls with dark eyes blazing, intent on his new target. With the might of the superweaponas well as powerful techniques his spectral mentor Exar Kun had taught himKyp would extinguish all threats against the New Republic.

Only days before, he had annihilated Admiral Daala and her two Star Destroyers in the Cauldron Nebula. On the fringes of the explosion, he had dropped off one of the Sun Crushers coffin-sized message pods so that the galaxy would know who was responsible for the victory.

As his next target, Kyp would challenge the Imperial military training center on Carida.

The military planet was a largish world with high gravity to toughen the muscles of potential stormtroopers. Its untamed land masses provided an appropriate range of training environments: arctic wastelands, trackless rain forests, splintered mountain crags, and searing desert hardpan crawling with venomous multilegged reptiles.

Carida seemed the opposite of Kyps peaceful homeworld of Deyer, where he and his family had lived in raft colonies on the calm terraformed lakesbut that peace had been shattered years ago when Kyps parents had chosen to protest the destruction of Alderaan. Stormtroopers had crushed the colony, whisking Kyp and his parents to the spice mines of Kessel while conscripting his brother Zeth for the stormtrooper training center.

Now, as he orbited the military planet, Kyps face bore the tight, hardened look of a person who has been through the raging fire of his own conscience. Shadows rimmed his eyes. He did not expect to find his brother still alive after so many yearsbut he intended to learn the truth.

And if Zeth was not there, Kyp had enough power to destroy the whole Caridan solar system.

A week ago he had left Luke Skywalker for dead atop the Great Temple on Yavin 4. He had stolen design parameters of the Sun Crusher from the mind of its naive creator, Qwi Xux. And he had blown up five stars to incinerate Admiral Daala and her two Star Destroyers. At the last moment Daala had tried to flee the exploding stars, but to no avail. The shock waves had been intense enough to blank the Sun Crushers viewscreens even as fire overtook Daalas flagship, the Gorgon.

Since that awesome victory Kyps obsession had gained momentum, and he had set out on a hyperspeed course toward annihilating the Empire.

The Caridan defense network spotted the Sun Crusher as Kyp entered orbit. He decided to transmit his ultimatum before the Imperial forces tried anything stupid. He broadcast on a wide range of frequencies.

Caridan military academy, he said, trying to deepen his voice. This is the pilot of the Sun Crusher. His mind searched for the name of the ambassadorial buffoon who had caused a diplomatic incident on Coruscant by tossing his drink in Mon Mothmas face. I wish to speak to Ambassador Furgan to discuss the terms of your surrender.

The planet below made no response. Kyp stared at the comm system, waiting for noise to burst from the speaker.

His alarm consoles flashed as the Caridans attempted to lock on to the Sun Crusher with a tractor beam, but Kyp worked the controls with Jedi-enhanced speed, oscillating his orbit at random so they could never get a positive lock.

I am not here to play games. Kyps hand bunched into a fist and slammed down on the comm unit. Carida, if you do not answer within the next fifteen seconds, Ill fire a torpedo into the heart of your sun. I think youre familiar with the capabilities of this weapon. Do you understand?

He began counting out loud. One two three four He got up to eleven before a brusque voice came through the comm system.

Intruder, we are transmitting a set of landing coordinates. Follow them precisely or you will be destroyed. Relinquish control of your ship to the stormtroopers immediately upon landing.