Jedi Prince_ The Lost City Of The Jedi Part 5

"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 hoa.r.s.e 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 eyeb.a.l.l.s. 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 Lords.h.i.+p," 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, gla.s.sy look slowly faded from his eyes. "I can almost make out the shape of your face, Ho'Din," Trioculus said in a hoa.r.s.e, 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.

CHAPTER 7.

The Secret Code of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi "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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, 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 s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps, 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 fireb.a.l.l.s, 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 s.h.i.+p came to a stop. "The Falcon's in trouble."

Luke, Han, and Chewie made a quick exit from their s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. The scent of smoke was everywhere, and they could hear the explosions of neutron fireb.a.l.l.s in the distance.

"What do you think, Han?" Luke asked. "Do you figure the Falcon will ever be able to make the trip again from here to the Bespin system in eighteen standard time parts?"

Suddenly Han Solo saw a gleam of white in the corner of his eye. He glanced toward the object and drew his blaster. "A stormtrooper!"

Han fired a couple of times. Chewbacca hurried over to see what the trouble was.

Luke propped himself up so he could see. "Stop, Han! That's not a stormtrooper! It's a droid I met. His name is Dee-Jay, and he's from the Lost City of the Jedi!"

"It's a droid named what from where?" Han asked.

Dee-Jay came toward them. Ken was alongside him, carrying his computer notebook.

"Commander Skywalker," Dee-Jay said. "You see what a disobedient boy I have here. No matter how many times I tell him not to come Topworld, he keeps coming back!"

"I had to find my computer notebook," Ken said. "I didn't know there'd be a fire, and TNTs, and stormtroopers, and-" Ken suddenly glanced at Han. He recognized him from pictures he'd seen in the Jedi Library. "Wow, you're Han Solo, right?" He then looked over at the Wookiee. "And-you're Chewbacca!"

"Groooowwfff!" Chewie said, confirming that Ken had gotten his name right.

"We know who we are, kid," Han said. "What we don't know is who you are and what you're doing here."

"I'm Ken," he replied. "And I've always wanted to meet you, Mr. Solo, for just about my entire life. You're one of the best Corellian pilots in the whole galaxy!"

"What do you mean one of?" Han replied. "You know anybody better?"

"Snoke Loroan made the trip from here to the Bespin system in fifteen standard time parts," Ken said, without even batting an eyelash. "The best the Millennium Falcon has ever done is eighteen standard time parts. I looked that up in the Jedi Library."

Han rolled his eyes in amazement. Who was this kid?

"Okay, okay, I'll admit I'm impressed," Han said. "But Snoke Loroan got wiped out in the battle of Endor. We're talking about living Corellian pilots."

"Then I guess you're the best," Ken admitted with a smile.

"You've got that right," Han said and beamed. "Now I'll tell you what, Chewie and I have flown from one end of this galaxy to the other in the Millennium Falcon. If you or your droid know any way we can escape from this blazing firepit, we'll give you a free ride to the planet of your choice, someday." Han thought about his offer again. "Well, almost any planet. Kessel and Hoth are off-limits."

"You've got a deal!" Ken said. "That is, if it's okay with Dee-Jay."

"Commander Skywalker," Dee-Jay said, "the flames approach. You and your friends must follow me to safety. With your help, I may be able to stop these fires."

To Luke's astonishment, without walking very far through the forest, they arrived at the circular stone wall made of green marble.

"It's just like in my dream!" Luke said. "We're at the entrance to the Lost City of the Jedi!"

"My Corellian buddies will never believe this!" Han Solo said.

Dee-Jay led them through the opening in the wall. There they saw the circular tubular transport. As Dee-Jay approached, the door slid open, and they all went inside.

"Hold on tight," Dee-Jay warned. "You may find this ride a bit disagreeable."

The tubular transport dropped so fast, Luke and his friends felt as if they'd left their stomachs behind. They plunged through an underground region in total darkness. They kept dropping at an incredible speed, and soon they saw flashes of flickering lights from luminescent rocks.

At last they came to a stop at the bottom of the shaft, several miles underground. Luke stepped out and looked around in awe. Here it was, the place he had been searching for.

And in this illuminated cavern, it still seemed as bright and new as it must have looked when the first Jedi Knights built it a long time ago.

Luke tried to take in everything at once. The many dome-houses where the Jedi Knights used to live, the platforms filled with equipment of an advanced technology, and the transport vehicles and roads made of perfectly cut stone.

Dee-Jay led them past a huge building with a sign that read: Jedi Library.

"Those of you who live on the surface of Yavin Four think the weather of this moon is the work of nature," Dee-Jay said. "But it's not. It's actually controlled from down here, from our Weather and Climate Command Center."

They entered the Climate Command building. There Dee-Jay took them down a long corridor, as droids hurried by them busily from both directions.

"Thousands of years ago," Dee-Jay continued, "Yavin Four was a cold and barren world. The Jedi Masters who built the Lost City discovered that they could change its climate. All they had to do was find a way for the heat from the core of this moon to reach the surface.

"And so," Dee-Jay explained, "they cut many deep shafts into this moon, like the shaft of the tubular transport. The other shafts are designed for releasing steam and heat into the atmosphere. Using their weather and climate control system, the Jedi Knights made this moon grow warm and tropical. They even seeded its continents, so lush rain forests would grow."

Dee-Jay now led them into a gigantic room that had a huge machine the size of a planetary power generator.

"This moon is on a cycle-a six-month dry season followed by a six-month rainy season,"

Dee-Jay said. "The rainy season is due to start in several weeks. But if we could discover the code to speed up the weather cycle, we could start the rainy season now."

"That would sure douse the fires in a hurry," Han commented. "And none too soon. I won't be a happy man if the Millennium Falcon goes up in smoke."

Dee-Jay opened a control box. "We've got to figure out the code," he said. "I've searched nearly every file in the Jedi Library, but I just can't seem to find it."

"I had a dream," Luke said. "A vision of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. He told me . . ."

Luke tried to remember what Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi had told him in his dream. Memorize this code, Obi-Wan had said. Its importance shall soon become clear to you.

But what was the code Obi-Wan had told him to memorize? Try as he might, Luke couldn't recall it.

Luke took a deep breath and then exhaled. He let all his thoughts flow out with his breath. Then, as he inhaled, he felt the power of the Force pouring into him, filling him with energy and power.

Suddenly it was there: JE-99-DI-88-FOR-00-CE.

"I remember the code!" Luke exclaimed. "Obi-Wan didn't tell me what it was for, but I sure hope it activates the weather cycle."

Luke punched in the code. And it worked!