Luke shook his head. "I'm a.s.signing you to stay behind with Artoo and Chewie on board the s.h.i.+p. Leia, Han, See-Threepio, and I are going to head under the wall. This mission could prove far too dangerous for you at your age."

Ken folded his arms and pouted. "At my age? But Luke, you weren't that much older than I am when you first joined the Alliance. Besides, what about all the stuff I know? You thought the brown k.n.o.b on this Corellian Action VI Transport was for bailing out! I'm the one who knew that it was a Forbes CC-Y Antiradar Defense Unit!"

"That's exactly why you're staying behind, to help Chewie take care of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p,"

Luke said. "You know its whole layout. You know how to operate ground defense in case of an attack."

"Chewie knows all that stuff too, and so does Artoo-Detoo," Ken argued. "Luke, don't forget your dream of Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. He told you our destinies are linked together. What do you think he would say if he knew you were leaving me behind?"

Luke sighed in frustration.

What was a Jedi Knight to do with a kid like Ken? He never took no for an answer. No matter what the situation, Ken always knew the right thing to say to get under Luke's skin and make him do what Ken wanted.

"If it's all the same with you, Master Luke, I'd be more than happy to stay behind,"

Threepio interjected. "After all, you did say it would be dangerous."

"Don't you start," Luke silenced the droid. "We need you with us."

"I'll stay behind," Princess Leia announced. "I can help Chewie fly this freighter out of here if the Imperials spot us. Before I became a diplomat from Alderaan, part of my training was in flying Corellian Action VI Transports for mercy missions." Leia removed the emergency supply backpack she had just put on. "Here, Ken," she said, handing him the backpack. "If you're going to go through the tunnels and under the Great Wall with Luke and Han and Threepio, something tells me you're going to need this."

CHAPTER 7.

The Search for the Secret Cavern Grand Moff Hissa's Imperial strike cruiser, with High Prophet Jedgar on board, landed on Duro, on the hill at the other side of the Valley of Royalty. The s.p.a.cecraft docked at the Imperial Toxic Waste Processing Plant, which was spewing clouds of black ash, creating an overcast, dreary gray sky.

Duro was filled with valuable metals needed for building stars.h.i.+ps. The Empire mined the metals, then pumped the deadly liquid toxins that remained into a vast lake, held back by an enormous dam.

High Prophet Jedgar and Grand Moff Hissa walked slowly along the edge of the dam. Then Jedgar turned to Hissa, saying, "Now that we are here, I can reveal to you the purpose of this mission. We have come . . . to recapture Triclops."

"Triclops-the son of Emperor Palpatine!" Grand Moff Hissa gasped. "He's escaped?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Jedgar replied. "But not for long. He was a patient in our Imperial Reprogramming Inst.i.tute, down there-"

Staring down at the sweeping valley, Grand Moff Hissa's eyes were blinded by bright gleams of silver.

Hissa could see the reflections from the flat, one-story Imperial Reprogramming Inst.i.tute, near the Monument of d.u.c.h.ess Geneer, a tall dome with four spires. There was a silvery glint from King Kadlo Tower, the tallest structure-and also a gleam from the Monument to Queen Rana, a giant likeness of the ancient queen's face, which looked up to the sky.

"The search for Triclops is already underway," High Prophet Jedgar explained. He pointed to the swarms of stormtroopers fanning out from the Reprogramming Inst.i.tute to look for the escaped prisoner. "Triclops escaped from Experimental Section Two, where even the most insane prisoners eventually learn obedience and to accept the rule of the Empire."

"Is Defeen, the Defel alien, still in charge of Experimental Section Two?" the grand moff asked. "If so, then he should be held accountable."

"Defeen was promoted to the position of interrogator first cla.s.s," Jedgar replied. "In fact, Defeen traced the responsibility for the escape to a defective Imperial a.s.sa.s.sin droid who aided and abetted Triclops."

Looking down at the Great Wall, Grand Moff Hissa realized that without a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, cloud car, or airspeeder, there was no way that Triclops could have gotten over the wall to flee from the Valley of Royalty. Triclops had to be down there-somewhere.

Luke, Han, Threepio, and Ken walked cautiously through a narrow, rocky gorge, searching for the hidden stairwell to the Valley of Royalty. Looking up at a craggy ledge, Luke spotted a giant Fefze beetle. No sooner did he point it out to the others than Threepio spotted several more coming up the gorge behind them.

"Oh my, I, I I. . . I absolutely deplore giant insects of any kind!" Threepio stammered.

"Especially beetles twice my size!"

"Look out-in front of us!" Ken shouted.

They were trapped! Four more giant Fefze beetles came scurrying toward them from farther away, at the front of the gorge. The beetles' antennas waved back and forth as each of their s.h.i.+ny bodies scampered along on six hairy legs.

"AGAAAAA . . . AGAAAAA . . . ." the Fefze beetles hissed.

"That must be the sound those b.u.g.g.e.rs make when they're starving and smell food," Han said, firing his laserblaster at the ones that were behind them.

Han aimed at the giant insects' heads.

ZAAAAP!.

Green fluid poured out of their beelike eyes, and then, as the beetles reared up, Han blasted their soft underbellies.

Luke pulled out his lightsaber and extended the bright green blade, as the Fefze beetles in front of them lined up one behind the other, charging through the tight, narrow canyon.

CHOPPPPPP!.

Luke sliced off the head of the first beetle as it attacked. The next one climbed up on the body of the dead insect, using it as a springboard to leap at Ken.

"Ken, duck!" Luke shouted.

WHOOOOOs.h.!.+.

Luke's sizzling lightsaber blade whacked the second giant insect in half, the pieces narrowly missing falling onto Ken. Then Luke cut off the pincers of the third beetle, sliced off its antennae, and zapped it right between its eyes.

"Watch out-up there!" Ken screamed, as another Fefze beetle leapt from an overhanging ledge.

It landed right on top of Luke, trapping his neck in its pincers. As Luke gasped, Ken stood by helplessly, watching in terror.

Han was too busy with the Fefze beetle in front of him to come to Luke's rescue.

"Oh, dear, oh my, someone's got to do something to help Master Luke!" Threepio shouted, hopping back and forth from one leg to the other.

Ken overcame his fears for the moment, and suddenly found the courage to grab the insect's pincers and pull them apart, freeing Luke from their deadly grip.

Having finished off the beetle in front of him, Han then rushed forward and finished off the last of the Fefze beetles with his blaster.

"Wow," said Ken, with a sigh of relief. "I did it, Luke! I saved you!"

"Thanks, Ken," Luke said with relief.

Han smiled. "Good work! In a pinch-you proved yourself a real champ, Ken," he said.

Luke knelt beside the body of one of the giant beetles. "Fefze beetles never grow this large," he mused. "They've probably mutated from all of the hazardous wastes on Duro. I'll bet they were starving because all the creatures they usually eat are dying off."

After climbing over the slimy, oozing bodies of the Fefze beetles blocking the narrow gorge, Luke, Han, Threepio, and Ken finally came upon the hidden entrance to the Valley of Royalty. If they hadn't known exactly where to look, they never would have located it. It was disguised by a rocky surface, as if it were a natural part of the cliff.

Forcing open the door, they found the stairwell that descended deep into the mountain. The steep steps seemed to go on forever, fading away into the darkness.

After unpacking their portable C-beam strobe lamps, and a sharp descent of at least a thousand steps, they reached a flat tunnel that went directly below the Great Wall.

At the intersection where the pa.s.sageway divided in two and split off in different directions, Luke stopped to examine the copy he' had made from Dustini's hologram of the tunnels.

DRIP . . . DRIP . . . DRIP . . .

Luke looked up. A thick, gooey liquid was dripping through the rocks-right onto his map.

TSSSSSS!.

Whatever it was, it burned a hole in the map, eating through the paper quickly! Luke dropped what was left of it on the ground, before any of it got on his hands, and stepped back.

"Uh-oh," Ken said, s.h.i.+ning his C-beam lamp on a puddle in front of them.

"The floor of this tunnel is covered with an odorous, gluelike substance," Threepio said, with alarm. "If only Artoo-Detoo were here, he'd be able to tell us the chemical makeup-"

Luke took a whiff of the puddle. "The Empire probably manufactures stars.h.i.+p propellants above ground somewhere near here," he said. "My guess is, the chemicals are leaking through the rocks."

Suddenly there was a low rumbling sound.

PAH-b.u.mMMMMMM!.

A blast came from above. The tunnel trembled, shaking violently, as if struck by a huge tremor.

Then the rumbling stopped. Luke, Han, Threepio, and Ken cautiously stepped around the chemical puddle and continued along another wide, underground pa.s.sageway. Soon they were completely lost. Without their map, they might continue winding through these catacombs forever and never find their way out.

Suddenly Threepio stopped in his tracks. "Excuse me, Master Luke," he said, "but I seem to detect an ultrahigh-frequency sound coming from behind the wall of this tunnel." Threepio touched the tunnel wall. "Why, these aren't ordinary rocks," he concluded. "It's just like the camouflage that covered the door up above. There is another door here. And goodness, the sounds I hear are coming from a droid on the other side. He's trying to communicate!"

"What's he saying, Threepio?" Luke asked.

"It sounds like a call for help. Oh my, I also detect a human life-form behind the door.

Someone's trapped!"

Luke touched the rock facing that covered the door, moving his hand along the surface until he felt a piece of jagged rock that was sticking out farther than the rest. He then drew his lightsaber, burning through the piece of rock and exposing a lock mechanism.

Han took out his blaster and fired directly at the lock. Then Han and Luke began pus.h.i.+ng the door up together, raising it.

SQUEEEEEEE .. .

They found themselves staring into the face of a tall, thin man dressed in the gray uniform of an Imperial prisoner. His long white hair stuck out in all directions, and he had scorch marks on his temples, as if he had been burned by a laser or electricity. Next to the man was -- "An a.s.sa.s.sin droid!" Luke shouted, pointing his lightsaber at the dangerous Imperial robot.

"Wait!" the man shouted. "Stop!" The man's eyes widened, and his eyebrows drew close together. "The droid is unarmed. He won't harm you. His violence program has been destroyed."

Luke held his lightsaber up very close to the a.s.sa.s.sin droid's chest as a warning. "Don't budge, or my lightsaber will fry your circuits to a crisp," Luke said sternly. Then he glanced at Threepio. "Threepio, check out this droid."

Threepio opened a panel on the a.s.sa.s.sin droid's back and carefully inspected its circuits.

"Harmless," Threepio concluded. "Quite harmless. Its circuits that control aggression and violent behavior are damaged, shorted out by a power surge of some kind."

"You see, it's like I told you, whoever you are," the prisoner explained, "he's harmless."

"This is Han Solo, this is Ken, and this is our droid, See-Threepio. I'm Commander Luke Skywalker of the Alliance," Luke said, looking the man over carefully.

"Skywalker. That name is not unknown to me. But the Skywalker I heard about was a Jedi Knight."

"I am a Jedi Knight," Luke replied. "We are with the Alliance."

"Then you believe in the Force," the white-haired man said. "I once knew a woman who lived by the ways of the Force. Her name was Kendalina. With bright gray eyes . . ." The man paused, looking directly at Ken. He seemed as though he wanted to say something more but then decided not to.

"What happened to Kendalina?" Ken asked.

"When the Empire discovered Kendalina was a Jedi, they destroyed her. It was a horrible day, burned into my memory forever, like these scars burned into my temples."

"You wear the clothes of an Imperial prisoner," Luke said. "Did you escape?"

"Fortunately, yes," the prisoner replied. "Defeen, the interrogator who questioned me, recommended me for a lobotomy. The Empire wished to make me docile and obedient. But I've spoiled their plans, thanks to this a.s.sa.s.sin droid here. I changed the droid's programming. Now he is my ally. At my request, he burned off the location forbidder the Empire had fastened to my wrist. Now they can no longer keep track of my every movement."

"Have you seen anyone else down here in these tunnels?" Luke asked. "We were told that there are archaeologists hiding in these caverns beneath the Valley of Royalty."

"Archaeologists, yes," the man replied. "I see everything and everyone, whether in front or behind. It's why they call me Triclops-for I have three eyes."

"Triclops!" Ken exclaimed. He was both excited and skeptical at the same time.

The man with the white hair turned his head, revealing an eye in the back of his skull-a powerful eye that seemed to send out hypnotic waves, making Ken blink and feel dizzy.

Ken looked away quickly, short of breath.

"He really is Triclops!" the young Jedi Prince exclaimed. "Trioculus only pretended to be the son of Emperor Palpatine. His third eye was on his forehead. But the real son of the Emperor has a third eye on the back of his head, just like you."

"Yes, just like me," Triclops repeated, turning around to face front once again. He looked at Ken with his two front eyes. "I remember Trioculus well. And a merciless slavemaster he was. When I was a patient in the Imperial insane asylum, back in the spice mines of Kessel, he used to whip me. And with every lash of the whip he swore that one day he would a.s.sume my ident.i.ty-once Palpatine died he would convince the entire galaxy that he was the Emperor's true three-eyed son. Then he would take over as ruler of the Empire!"

"He was the ruler of the Empire for awhile," Ken said. "But now he's frozen in carbonite and hanging in a museum in Cloud City."

"You know a great deal," Triclops said. Then he reached out and touched the semi-transparent, silvery crystal that Ken wore around his neck. "Who gave this to you?"

he said slowly, with reflection.

Ken backed away, pus.h.i.+ng Triclops's hand from the crystal. "I don't know. I've always had it, ever since I was little."

"Always is a long time, even for someone so young." Triclops pointed to the scars on his temples. "Seems like I've always had these. The Empire began shock therapy on me when I was young. But lightning bolts, with energy from the Dark Side, never conquered me. And now I've escaped from the Empire at last. With help from this a.s.sa.s.sin droid, I climbed down the mouth of the monument of Queen Rana. I would have found my way to freedom, but I got trapped down here in these tunnels."