Star Wars Adventures 003 - The Hostage Princess Read online

  When a mysterious, droid-piloted starship threatened to wreak havoc on the planet Fondor, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, intervened and destroyed the ship. Unbeknownst to the two Jedi, the ship—a replica of a legendary craft named the Sun Runner—had been constructed by Groodo the Hutt, a competitive starship manufacturer from the planet Esseles, who was scheming to put Fondor’s orbital starship yards out of business. After the replica’s destruction, Groodo was summoned to the Fondor system by his unlikely co-conspirator, Senator Rodd of Fondor.

  Despite the Jedi victory, Obi-Wan and Anakin became separated during their mission, and Anakin was stranded on Fondor’s jungle-covered moon, Nallastia. Jedi Knight Bultar Swan was prepared to accompany Obi-Wan to Nallastia, but Obi-Wan had a feeling they might require backup, so they transmitted a message to the Jedi Council and requested reinforcements.

  Before any additional Jedi could reach the Fondor system, Obi-Wan and Bultar tracked Anakin to a Nallastian fortress, the stronghold of the Skull Queen. There, Anakin made a desperate effort to rescue two zoologists who had been wrongly accused of poaching, and thus were captured and sentenced to death by Princess Calvaria. To prevent the zoologists from being crushed by a condensing force field, the Jedi had to recover the Lost Stars of Nallastia, three ancient power gems with force-field-disabling properties. The Jedi were aided by the Nallastian leader, Margravine Quenelle, also known as the Skull Queen, mother of Princess Calvaria.

  After the zoologists were rescued, an exhausted Anakin tried to get some rest at the Skull Queen’s fortress while Obi-Wan and Bultar attended a banquet with the Nallastians. During the meal, the Skull Queen unexpectedly announced she had decided to marry Obi-Wan. This shocking declaration was immediately followed by another, as Princess Calvaria insisted that she would wed Obi-Wan…

  “You wish to marry Obi-Wan Kenobi?” the Skull Queen asked her daughter.

  “It is not only my wish, but my destiny,” Princess Calvaria responded from the other side of the banquet table. In stunned silence, the seated figures of Obi-Wan, Bultar Swan, and two dozen Nallastian warriors watched the Skull Queen and Calvaria.

  “Destiny?” the Skull Queen gasped. “Whatever are you prattling about?”

  Calvaria answered, “Of Nallastia’s power gems, it is written:

  ‘He who finds the stars of yore

  Where others fear to tread,

  Will also find his heart is for

  Calvaria, and they will wed.’”

  The Skull Queen burst out laughing. “And where is that written?” she snickered. “In your own fluff-filled diary?”

  Calvaria replied, “As a royal member of the Skull Clan, my journal is valid scripture. And I trust with my soul that the words are true.” She turned and beamed at the dumbfounded Obi-Wan, who tried not to squirm in his chair.

  Obi-Wan said, “If I may point out—”

  Glaring at Calvaria, the Skull Queen interrupted, “Perhaps you have forgotten, my darling daughter, that you are betrothed to Prince Alto of the Raptor Clan, and that your wedding is tomorrow?”

  Obi-Wan and Bultar swapped glances. This was the first time they had heard about Princess Calvaria’s wedding.

  “I have not forgotten anything!” Calvaria snapped. “I refuse to marry an odorous nest-dweller.”

  “Who are you to judge the Raptor Clan?” asked the Skull Queen. “You haven’t even met Prince Alto.”

  “But I know he cannot be much of a man,” Calvaria said. “By recovering the Lost Stars, Obi-Wan has proved he is the greatest warrior to ever walk on our world. His rightful place is by my side.”

  “He has already chosen me,” said the Skull Queen. “He took my hand in the Cavern of Screaming Skulls.”

  Bultar looked at Obi-Wan, who reluctantly admitted under his breath, “Only to guide her through a dizzying hall of mirrors.”

  The Skull Queen smiled sweetly at Obi-Wan. “Before you, the last man to hold my hand was my late husband.”

  “And look where that got him!” Calvaria snarled at her mother.

  “Insolent whelp!” countered the Skull Queen.

  “Doddering battle-axe!”

  “Insufferable appendage!”

  “Fortress-wrecker! ”

  “Please,” Obi-Wan said, rising to his feet. “I am unfamiliar with your customs regarding courtship and matrimony, and I regret if I have done anything to mislead either of you. But you must understand that I am… not available. I am a Jedi. And as such, my loyalty is to the Jedi Order.”

  “You cannot marry?” asked the Skull Queen.

  “That is correct.”

  With a knowing smile, the Skull Queen said, “Ah, but I have heard of a Cerean Jedi Master named Ki-Adi-Mundi. Is he not married?”

  Obi-Wan looked to Bultar Swan, who could plainly see that her fellow Jedi Knight did not want to answer any more of the Skull Queen’s questions. Remaining seated, Bultar leaned forward in her chair and said, “Because of the low birthrate of Cereans, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi is exempt from the Jedi edict that discourages marriage.”

  The Skull Queen asked, “And has he been married long?”

  “He has been with his wives for many years,” Bultar replied truthfully.

  “Wives?” Calvaria said, surprised. “How many does he have?”

  “Two,” Bultar said. “As I said, the Cerean birthrate is very low, and they—”

  Before Bultar could finish, Calvaria exploded, “I refuse to share Obi-Wan with another!”

  “That won’t be a problem,” said the Skull Queen, “since he won’t be yours at all!” Turning to Obi-Wan, she said, “So Jedi can marry. Unless you forgot, your edicts are somewhat flexible; it seems you were not entirely truthful.”

  “I am not a Cerean,” Obi-Wan replied. “I stand by my words.”

  “Now, really, Obi-Wan,” interrupted the Skull Queen. “I appreciate your attempt to spare Calvaria embarrassment in front of all who are gathered but, if we are to be wife and husband, you must be more honest with me.”

  Calvaria exclaimed, “It is you who should be embarrassed, Mother. Obi-Wan and I will not tolerate your—”

  “Stop!” Obi-Wan said, louder than he had intended. He took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain. In the Cavern of Screaming Skulls, he had broken two ribs, and they had not yet completely healed. Calming himself, he continued, “I believe I have made myself clear. I will not be marrying anyone.”

  Calvaria exchanged a menacing stare with her mother, then said, “Duel in one hour? Loser to relinquish all claims to Obi-Wan’s heart?”

  “Accepted,” the Skull Queen answered.

  Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows. “Duel?”

  Ignoring Obi-Wan, the Skull Queen said, “After I defeat you in combat, Calvaria, you will prepare for your wedding to Prince Alto.”

  “You won’t defeat me, Mother,” Calvaria answered. “And Prince Alto can go marry a mud-eating venrap.” Looking to Obi-Wan, she said, “I shall prove myself worthy of your affections.” Before the flabbergasted Obi-Wan could respond, Calvaria turned and left the banquet room.

  “This has gone too far,” Obi-Wan said to the Skull Queen. “I insist you call off the duel at once.”

  “Since Calvaria challenged me, only she can call it off,” the Skull Queen replied. “But you can dismiss her claim to love you, Obi-Wan. She is angry with me because I arranged her marriage to Prince Alto without her consent. Their marriage is necessary to maintain peace between the Raptor Clan and our own Skull Clan. Calvaria will learn to love Alto. You need not worry about her.”

  “I am not worried about either you or Calvaria,” Obi-Wan s
tated. “I am troubled by the way you two are more willing to fight than listen to each other, let alone listen to me.”

  A Nallastian guard entered the banquet hall and announced, “A Republic Cruiser has requested permission to land.”

  “It must be carrying our reinforcements,” Bultar said.

  The Skull Queen asked, “Reinforcements for what?”

  Obi-Wan said, “Although the replica of the Sun Runner was destroyed, I sense the danger is not over. If not here, then on Fondor. We may require assistance.”

  “Permission is granted,” the Skull Queen said to the guard. “Direct the cruiser to the fortress’s landing field.”

  Obi-Wan exhaled a sigh of relief. He could hardly wait to leave Nallastia.

  As the guard left the hall, the Skull Queen turned to Obi-Wan and said, “It would please me if you remained until my fight with Calvaria is over. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must prepare for the duel.” The Skull Queen clapped her hands twice. All the Nallastian warriors rose from the table and followed their leader out of the hall, leaving Obi-Wan and Bultar alone at the table.

  Bultar said, “I think the Skull Queen and her daughter like you.”

  Obi-Wan scowled. “That isn’t funny.”

  “On a more serious note, we ran into trouble here, but we handled it. Do you really think we still need reinforcements?”

  “Yes,” Obi-Wan said. “At least, I believe we will. Ever since we were on the space station in orbit around Fondor, I’ve felt a sense of dread. Even after we found the power gems and rescued the zoologists, I still had a feeling that the Fondor system is being threatened by sinister forces.”

  “And you suspect Senator Rodd is somehow involved?”

  “Call it a hunch,” Obi-Wan said. “Do you know where Anakin’s room is?”

  “Yes. Shall I wake him?”

  “Please. Then bring him to the landing field.”

  “Too bad he was so exhausted,” Bultar commented. “I’m sure he’ll be sorry he wasn’t present for our dinner conversation with the Nallastians. Will we be staying for the duel?”

  Obi-Wan sighed. “I’ll meet you at the landing field.”

  Anakin lay sleeping in a guest room in the Skull Queen’s fortress. His dream began as it always did, at his hovel on the sand planet Tatooine. In the dream, he lay upon his old bed, looking up at the cracks that snaked across the ceiling.

  The hovel was located in Slave Quarters Row on the edge of Mos Espa, and his old home was just as he remembered it on his last day there. It even smelled the same, with the scent of oil and grimy equipment from his workbench mingling with the dehydrated herbs and vegetables that dangled from twine in the kitchen. An inescapable haze of dust filled his room, but the blanket on his bed felt clean.

  In his dream, he pushed back the blanket and brushed his fingers against the adobe wall that wrapped around his bed alcove. Feeling the wall’s coolness, he wondered about the time of day. Harsh sunlight crept into his room through a narrow, louvered window and cut a shaft down through the dusty air to the intricately patterned rug spread over the dirt floor. Continuous exposure to the light had already drained most of the rug’s color. Anakin decided time was not important.

  The skeletal form of C-3PO teetered on his spindly legs across the room. “Good morning, Master Anakin,” said the droid.

  Still lying in bed, Anakin forced a smile. He felt sorry for C-3PO. He knew the droid didn’t like walking around with his parts exposed.

  C-3P0 asked, “I trust you slept well?”

  “Yes, thanks,” Anakin said, then cleared his throat. Something was strange about his voice. It sounded deeper. As he rolled out of bed, he realized his legs felt heavy, and his bare feet struck the floor sooner than expected. Despite the familiar surroundings, something was different. Anakin had grown; he was no longer the boy he had been nine years ago. He was eighteen.

  And he was a Jedi.

  His clothes were set neatly beside his bed. He pulled on his tunic and robe, slipped his feet into his leather boots, and stood up. Facing C-3PO, he saw he was now taller than the droid. He must have looked surprised or confused because C-3P0 asked, “Is everything all right, sir?”

  “I think so,” Anakin said. “My throat’s just a bit dry.” He stepped past the droid, leaving his room and entering the kitchen. On the countertop, steam rose from under the lid of a polta bean pan.

  Anakin had thought he wanted a drink of water, but he realized he was searching for something else. Something he had forgotten. No, not something. Someone. He turned around to see C-3P0 standing in his bedroom doorway, and asked, “Where’s Mom?”

  “Mom?” C-3P0 said. He cocked his head to the side and somehow managed a quizzical expression. “Mom?” he repeated. It seemed he was unfamiliar with the word. He scratched at a wire behind his left photoreceptor, then exclaimed, “Oh, you mean your mother!”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Anakin said, “Do you know where she is?”

  “Why, I should expect she’s at Watto’s junkshop. I’m afraid he’s had her doing quite a lot of work there, ever since you ran away.”

  Anakin winced. “But I didn’t run away,” he said. “I left. To become a Jedi.”

  “Oh, of course you did, sir,” said C-3PO, his voice filled with good cheer. “I never meant to suggest that you abandoned any responsibilities you might have had here, when you were just a child. After all, we’re so very proud of you and your achievements. Not that we actually know about what you’ve accomplished in the past nine years, since we’ve never received any messages from you, but I do get the distinct impression that your mother still cares very much about you. And she does have a vivid imagination, so she very easily assumed that you must be…”

  The droid was still talking as Anakin ran out of the hovel and into the broiling radiance of Tatooine’s twin suns. Although it appeared to be afternoon, when the city of Mos Espa should have been teeming with street vendors and pedestrians, there was no sign of life. Anakin felt a sense of panic. He ran as fast as he could through the empty streets until he arrived outside the tall, bell-shaped structure that was Watto’s junkshop.

  Like his own hovel, the junkshop appeared to be exactly as Anakin remembered it. Yet when he ducked through the shop’s entrance portal and entered the cluttered interior, he found that Watto had added something new: In front of a workbench, there was a low cage with thick metal bars. A filthy figure, clothed in dirty rags, was huddled within the cage.

  It was Shmi Skywalker. Anakin’s mother.

  She looked up at him with fear in her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked. Her voice sounded old and tired.

  “It’s me, Mom,” Anakin said, dropping to his knees before the cage. “Anakin. Annie. I’m grown up now. I’ve come to rescue you.”

  “Anakin?” Shmi said in disbelief. She slowly shook her head. “But you can’t be. You can’t be here. You’re gone.”

  “I’ll get you out, Mom,” Anakin said as he gripped the bars. He looked around. There was no sign of Watto.

  “It is you,” Shmi said. “It really is you.”

  Anakin tugged at the bars with all his might, but they would not yield. Then he remembered he was a Jedi. He could do anything! He reached to his belt, expecting to find his lightsaber, but his fingers slapped against his side. His lightsaber was gone. He tried to recall if he had clipped it to his belt before leaving his hovel, or if he had even brought it with him to Tatooine. He tried to remember when and where he had seen it last. He felt confused. How had he arrived back on Tatooine? He could not remember.

  Desperate, he glanced at Watto’s tool shelf and saw a fusion-cutter and power pry-bar. He grabbed for them, but he could not pick them up. He tried again, tearing at them, but the tools would not budge. It seemed they had been welded to the shelf.

  Anakin collapsed beside the cage, his head smacking against the bars. “I swear, I’ll get you out!” he sobbed.

  Shmi reached between the bars and pushed her oil-stained fing
ers through her son’s blond hair. “Oh, Annie,” she said. “Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”

  “Mom, look at you! Watto left you in a cage!” Anakin said, outraged.

  “No, he didn’t, Annie,” Shmi said sadly. “Watto didn’t leave me. You did.”

  Suddenly, Shmi, the junkshop, and all of Tatooine were swept away from Anakin’s vision, and he was engulfed in darkness. It wrapped around him like a cold, black shroud that cut him off from the entire galaxy. Unable to see, his only awareness was of the steady rise and fall of his own breathing.

  Something was wrong. The breathing sounded mechanical and labored, as if it were being done through some kind of respirator. Anakin wondered if the breathing were his own, or if he had been mistaken about the sound’s origin. Perhaps, he thought, I’m not alone in this dark place.

  He held his breath and listened to the void. The sound of mechanized breathing stopped. And then Anakin felt his throat constricting.

  The darkness coiled even tighter around him, working its way through his skin, seizing his lungs and veins and muscles and bones until he knew it was about to consume him. Then the dream ended as it always did, with Anakin trying to shout but fearing that no one, not even he, would ever hear his cry. And then he awoke.

  When Anakin’s eyes opened, he found himself in his dark room in the fortress of the Skull Queen. Feeling his heart pounding, he took a deep breath and tried to relax. He wanted to clear his mind and shake off the memory of the infernal dream.

  A knock at his door nearly caused him to jump. Anakin swung his legs out over the side of the bed and sat upright. “Enter.”

  The door slid back to reveal the trim form of Bultar Swan. Her brown eyes took in Anakin, noticing small beads of sweat on his forehead.

  “A Republic Cruiser is arriving momentarily, carrying Jedi reinforcements at Obi-Wan’s request,” Bultar said. “Obi-Wan is waiting for us on the landing field.”

  “Reinforcements?” Anakin said with surprise. Rising to his feet, he asked, “Why? Another emergency?”