Jedi Search

While Luke Skywalker takes the first step toward setting up an academy to train a new order of Jedi Knights, Han Solo and Chewbacca are taken prisoner on the planet Kessel and forced to work in the fathomless depths of a spice mine. After Solo and Chewbacca escape, they flee desperately to a secret Imperial research laboratory surrounded by a cluster of black holes-and go from one danger to a far greater one.

The story begins with Han Solo and Chewbacca on a diplomatic mission from the New Republic to the spice mines of Kessel.

Unbeknownst to them, Moruth Doole has taken over the space mines, and is convinced the Falcon with Solo and Chewbacca aboard is a spy ship, a prelude to invasion to seize control of the extremely lucrative spice production facilities. His small fleet, based on Kessel's solo moon, shoots down the emissaries, and brings them to Doole for questioning. He proceeds to do so by ingesting a large quantity of extremely pure glitterstim, which boosts his psychic capabilities to the point where he can forcibly invade Solo's mind and ascertain the truth.

When Doole realizes that they are just diplomats, and that he has effectively declared war on the New Republic, he panics. When combined with the fact that he thinks Solo knows he was the one that ratted out he and Chewbacca to the Imperials (the result of which was that Solo was forced to dump his cargo on the Kessel Run; Jabba the Hutt then placed the bounty on his head mentioned in Episode IV), Doole decides the best course is to place the two prisoners in his mines as slave laborers where they will no doubt perish soon. In the mines, the two, with the aid of a young Kyp Durron seek for an escape.

Simultaneously, Luke Skywalker embarks on his search for talented Force-sensitives whom he can mold into Jedi within his new Jedi Praxeum. Lando Calrissian, along with C-3PO and R2-D2, aid Luke with this search. In order to do so, he uses a device that supposedly can detect one's affinity to the Force. Calrissian follows one lead to the Umgullian Blob races where Dack, the possible force-sensitive, is rumored to have predictive abilities due to his successes at gambling. However, Calrissian discovers that he is cheating and exposes him. Rather than be punished by death, as is the law on Umgul, Dack is returned to the Duchess Mistral. In return, Calrissian is rewarded with half of the one million credit reward.

Skywalker, meanwhile has gone to the infested planet Eol Sha where a man named Gantoris is believed to have Force-sensitivity. After two serious tests, one involving fighting a fire dragon, Gantoris agrees to come to the Jedi academy, but is still afraid about the "Dark man" he sees in his dreams that will one day end his life. After collecting Streen, an old hermit on Bespin, the trio make their way back to the Yavin 4 where the Jedi academy begins.

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