Star Wars - 210 - Jedi Prince 01 - The Glove of Darth Vader by Paul Davids, Hollace Davids Read Free Book Online

Ackbar.
    "Gooooo-zizzz beee-zeeez!" beeped Artoo.
    Threepio translated Artoo’s answer. The metal was six percent doonium, a very heavy element used by the Empire in most of its war machines. The metal was also three percent phobium.
    "Phobium was mined by Emperor Palpatine on Gargon," said Ackbar. "And there’s only one thing I know of that he ever used it for: to coat the power core of the Death Star." Luke’s eyes widened in astonishment. "So then these are scraps from the power core of the exploded Death Star!" He stared through the front porthole again. The Whaladon-hunting submarine had stopped.
    A small sub that Luke guessed was an emergency-escape vehicle exited the Whaladon-hunting submarine. But now it was being used for exploration, not for escape. Slowly and steadily it approached a large chunk of twisted scrap metal, one almost as large as an Imperial command speeder. Luke felt a shiver run up his spine as he suddenly realized what was about to happen.

CHAPTER 6
    Ten Minutes to Self-Destruct
    A hatch on the escape sub opened and Trioculus emerged alone, while Grand Moff Hissa and the others remained behind.
    Trioculus wore a diving suit of the most advanced design, equipped with a helmet that had a miniature arc light. He took a supply of thermal detonators with him. KABRAAAA-AAM!
    The thermal detonators blasted a hole in the side of the large chunk of the Death Star sprawled across the ocean floor. Then Trioculus pulled himself through the hole into the big, hollow piece of metallic debris. He adjusted the arc light on his helmet so that he could examine the crushed mechanical parts that surrounded him. He found a large lump that looked like the remains of a melted energy dish. He also found a maze of mashed turbolaser cooling tubes and ion equalizers, scorched and clumped together so that they were almost unrecognizable.
    And then his third eye noticed three black fingertips sticking out from beneath a mashed ion deactivator.
    He pushed aside the ion deactivator, and there it was: a five-fingered black gauntlet, in one piece, undamaged by heat or water.
    In fact, the glove looked just as it must have looked when Darth Vader had worn it on his right hand!
    Luke bit his lower lip as he kept staring through the front porthole of the Calamarian minisub. Using underwater macrobinoculars, he could see that the diver had three eyes-Trioculus! The Imperial tyrant was reentering the escape sub, and Luke wondered whether Trioculus had just found the glove of Darth Vader.
    "Ackbar, can we catch up with that little sub before it gets back inside the Whaladon-hunting submarine?" Luke asked.
    "I don’t see how," Ackbar replied somberly. "If we get too close, we’ll be discovered. One blast from their laser cannons and we’ll be finished."
    "I say it’s time to retreat then," said Threepio.
    Luke remembered the words of Yoda, his Jedi teacher: Luke, the coming fight is yours alone. There is no avoiding the battle-you cannot escape your destiny.
    "We’re not going to retreat, Threepio," said Luke. He turned to the Calamarian fishman beside him. "Admiral Ackbar, is there any way we could signal Trioculus and communicate with him somehow?"
    "You mean let him know that we’re here?"
    "Exactly. If we surrender to him, then he’ll take us aboard to question us, right? But that will be the biggest mistake he’ll ever make."
    "Or the biggest one we’ll ever make," said Ackbar. Another thought struck Luke. "The other thing we could do is attack."
    "Attack!" exclaimed Threepio.
    It was an old Jedi rule of thumb to attack when the odds were overwhelmingly against you, and when there was no other possible way to save your own life or the life of an ally. Luke had used that strategy aboard Jabba the Hutt’s skiff when Luke and his friends were about to be executed.
    "Ackbar, let’s get closer to them," said Luke. "Full speed ahead."
    "Full speed ahead," repeated Admiral Ackbar reluctantly.
    "Oh, dear, I do hope you know what