CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When Jaden and Khedryn found the central computer room, it had been ransacked. All of the comp stations appeared to be destroyed, some obviously slashed by lightsabers, others simply smashed with something heavy. Ruined display screens, servers, and CPUs dotted the floor. Pieces of shattered data crystals crunched underfoot like caltrops.

"Someone did not like computers," Khedryn said.

Jaden had hoped to find an answer in the core computing room. Instead he'd found the same ruin that characterized the rest of the complex. He felt pressure building in his chest, at the base of his skull.

For the first time, he began to worry that the complex had nothing to show him.

But how could that be?

He went from table to table, sorting through the debris.

"Anything usable, Khedryn. There has to be something here. Look! Look!"

Khedryn joined him, the two of them sifting the strata of destruction like archaeologists.

Khedryn pulled a water-stained hard-copy schematic from the debris, holding it gently by one corner. "Looks like the layout of this facility." He studied it for a moment, turned it over, slowly unfolding it.

"Careful," Jaden said.

Khedryn got it unfolded in one piece and studied it. "It mentions a lower level in the key but does not show it."

"Good find. Keep looking."

Jaden needed something more solid, something that would show him where the Force wanted him to go. He could not consult his feelings. They were too clouded with doubt. He wanted facts. He wanted-needed-to understand the facility's purpose, the reason for all the mystery.

Reaching under a desk against the wall, he found some stray data crystals, frayed power cords, and a single computer that was not obviously damaged. The batteries would be long dead.

"I need a power cord," he said over his shoulder.

"Here," Khedryn said, grabbing one from the floor near his feet and tossing it to Jaden.

Jaden held his breath as he plugged one end into the computer, the other into an outlet, and turned on the power.

He blew out a relieved breath when it hummed to life. He thought Khedryn must surely have heard his heartbeat.

"There are data crystals under that desk. Grab them. Any that are intact."

Khedryn did. There were dozens.

They tried one after another, quickly finding all of them encrypted or unusable. Jaden's elation faded. The facility seemed intent on keeping its secrets.

"Second to last," Khedryn said. "Holocrystal."

He tossed it to Jaden. Jaden snatched it out of the air and shot him a glare for being so careless. Khedryn responded by making bug eyes.

Jaden inserted the crystal into the functioning computer and tried to extract usable data. As he had with all the others, he moved through a series of files and found most of them corrupted. He executed two or three and the computer's holoplayer projected only a scrambled image and indecipherable audio.

Khedryn shook his head and walked away in frustration.

Toward the end of the file string, Jaden hit on a log of files that appeared less damaged than the others.

"Here," he said to Khedryn, and ran the files.

"What do you have?"

"Let's see."

The computer holoprojector lit up, and a shaky hologram materialized before them. Dr. Black-they could read the name on his lab coat-a paunchy, graying human with a receding hairline and eyes set too close together, spoke without much inflection.

"… of us will keep a log. This is mine. Experiment log. Day one. Dr. Gray was finally able to recombine the sample DNA into a usable form. I told him that he'd earned a drink from the whiskey stores. Dr. Green and Red agree on the growth medium. Subjects A through I are born."

He gave a tiny smile, nodded slightly as if satisfied, and the log entry faded out.

"DNA?" Khedryn said. "Clones or a bioweapon, then."

"Seems likely," Jaden said, though he dared not follow the thread of his thoughts to its conclusion. Instead he continued the holo-log. Long portions of it were ruined. They saw still moments captured in time as if frozen by the ice of the moon: Dr. Black's face motionless in an expression of triumph or defeat, his pronouncement of a single word or phrase that meant little absent context.

"Jedi and Sith," Dr. Black said, the words floating alone in the cold space of the ruined data crystal, nothing before or after them to give them meaning.

Jaden stopped the holo, reset the recording to an earlier point, at the same time rewinding in his head the voices and imagery from his vision.

"Jedi and Sith," said Dr. Black.

Jaden, said Mara Jade Skywalker.

Jaden played it again.

"Jedi and Sith," said Dr. Black. "Jedi and Sith."

Jaden, said Master Solusar.

"There is no more in that bit, Jaden," Khedryn said. "Keep going."

Jaden, said Lassin.

"Jaden," Khedryn said, louder, and put a hand over Jaden's. "Speed it forward."

Jaden came back to himself and nodded, his mind spinning, then continued the holo. He felt knots drawing close, puzzle pieces falling into place. Another single word chilled his blood.

"… Palpatine," Dr. Black said.

"I thought this was a Thrawn-era facility," Khedryn said.

"It was," Jaden answered, but said no more.

"Keep going," Khedryn said, warming to the mystery.

Jaden did, and they hit on a longer entry.

"There," Khedryn said.

Jaden replayed it.

"… thirty-three. The experiment has been an unqualified success. We retarded the maturation process as much as possible to ensure an appropriate rate of growth, but the subjects still grew to maturity much more rapidly than our models predicted. Memory imprinting will begin soon, though the subjects appear to have been born with extant knowledge of their Force sensitivity. All have exhibited mastery of basic and moderately advanced Force techniques. Testing reveals an extraordinarily high midi-chlorian count in all subjects. Grand Admiral Thrawn has been apprised of the results."

The entry ended, and neither Khedryn nor Jaden said anything.

Ignoring the feel of Khedryn's eyes on him, Jaden sped forward through the log, looking for something else coherent, rushing toward whatever catastrophe befell the facility.

A broken entry sometime later showed a haggard-looking Dr. Black. His entire body drooped, as if borne down by a great weight. A few unidentifiable stains marred his lab coat.

"He looks like he has lost ten kilos," Khedryn said.

Jaden played the hologram. Dr. Black spoke to them from out of the past.

"Subject H was killed by the other Subjects in an incident of collective… rage. We are unsure what sparked the incident."

The holo faded. Jaden sped it forward but encountered nothing for some time. Then Black appeared again, the circles under his eyes dark enough to have been drawn in ink. He licked his lips nervously as he spoke.

"… appear to have an unusual connection to one another, empathetic certainly. Possibly telepathic. This was unexpected. Dr. Gray believes that… "

The image faded again and in the next available entry, Dr. Black's voice audibly quavered. "We discovered today that Subject A had smuggled enough spare parts into his living quarters to build a rudimentary lightsaber. A subsequent search of the other Subjects' living quarters revealed that all of them had partially constructed lightsabers at one or another stage of development. Security has been… "

The entry turned black. So did Jaden's thoughts.

"Lightsabers?" Khedryn asked, his voice low. "Were they cloning… Jedi?"

For a moment, Jaden's mouth refused to form words. In his head he saw Lassin, Kam, Mara, all of them with Force signatures more akin to Sith than Jedi. How could Thrawn have gotten their DNA? Mara would have been easy, but Kam? Lassin? The others?