Star Wars: Jedi Prince 4: Mission from Mount Yoda by Paul Davids, Hollace Davids

droid."
    Threepio opened a panel on the assassin 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 assassin 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 assume my identity-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, pushing 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 assassin droid, I climbed down the mouth of the monument of Queen Rana. I would have found my way to