thing without help?"
"She had the help of a prominent Belascan who had access to areas of
the highest security," Adi responded. She fixed her commanding gaze on Uta
S'orn.
S'orn did not bluster or deny the charge. She raised an eyebrow and
looked disdainfully at the Jedi.
Min K'atel glanced at S'orn. "This is preposterous," he said. "You
try to cover your own involvement by accusing one of Belasco's finest
citizens! I will contact the Jedi Council. I will not let this accusation
stand!"
"Uta S'orn is hiding Jenna Zan Arbor and the Jedi Master she is
holding hostage," Qui-Gon stated. "If you would give the order to search
her quarters, you would find them."
"I will not give such an order!"
Adi and Qui-Gon activated their lightsabers in a split second. Obi-
Wan and Siri quickly followed.
"I'm afraid we must insist," Qui-Gon said. "A Jedi is being held
captive on your grounds. That makes you responsible. If we must fight a
battle to release him, know that we will."
Min K'atel looked uncertain. "There is no other Jedi here. Only wards
full of sick children and elders."
"I saw a sick elder," Min K'atel's daughter, Joli, suddenly piped up.
She shook the doll in her lap, moving its arms and legs. "He made this."
"And how did he give it to you?" Adi asked gently.
"He threw it down into the bushes," Joli said. "He threw down other
toys to the children. Mine is the best." She smiled down at the doll in her
lap. "It is the prettiest."
"Mine is the prettiest!" a young girl said, running forward, waving a
doll.
"No, mine!" A boy shook a toy in the air. Qui-Gon walked forward. He
gently took the doll from Joli's hand. He held it against his robe. The
color and texture of the threads matched exactly.
"Do you still say a Jedi is not on your property?" he asked Min
K'atel.
Min K'atel's eyes traveled high above to the window where his
daughter had seen the toy-maker. It was in Uta S'orn's quarters.
He did not look at Uta S'orn. "Search her quarters," he said to the
captain of the guard.
Uta S'orn shrugged as the members of the royal guard rushed off.
"They will find nothing."
"If that is so, then I will apologize most humbly," Min K'atel said.
He turned to the guard droids. "Surround Senator S'orn."
The guard droids wheeled in formation. But instead of turning on Uta
S'orn, they turned on the Jedi.
CHAPTER 20
"They have been reprogrammed," Qui-Gon said tersely.
The words had barely left his mouth when the droids began to fire.
Blaster fire erupted in a flash around the Jedi.
Only the group immediately around them realized what was happening.
The partygoers on the lawn thought the flash was part of the celebrations.
They applauded as the Jedi began to spin, their lightsabers a blur.
Musicians played nearby, and the people turned toward the music.
Obi-Wan thought of the many children surrounding them. His primary
objective was to contain the battle so that they would not be injured by
stray blaster fire. He knew the others had the same thought.
The droids stayed in formation, wheeling to attack and then
regrouping. Uta S'orn slipped off her seat of honor and disappeared into
the crowd.
The Jedi did not need to confer on strategy. Along with protecting
the Belascans in the garden, they had to get to Uta S'orn's quarters. They
formed a tight circle to deflect the blaster fire and attack the royal
droids. As they fought, they moved steadily forward, fanning out to break
the strict formation of the guards.
"Cover me," Qui-Gon said tersely.
Adi, Siri, and Obi-Wan stepped up the attack. They were a blur of
movement now, moving together, covering one another and then reversing to
deliver a furious attack on the droids.
Obi-Wan reached out to Adi and Siri, catching the rhythm of their
battle strategy. Adi relied on Siri's quick footwork and gymnastic leaps.
Siri depended on Adi's dazzling lightsaber action. Together, they were an
amazing pair.
But even as they littered the grounds with broken droids, more
arrived in what seemed to be a never-ending stream. They poured out of the
palace guard room, blaster rifles pointed at the Jedi.
Fighting battle droids had its own challenges. Their weakness was the
same as their strength: They did not think. They responded to stimulus.
They saw beings as targets to be destroyed. Their complicated wiring could
be compromised by one good blow. Yet their accuracy was impeccable.
Even as he fought, Obi-Wan kept in mind that Qui-Gon had run into the
palace alone. He would meet Ona Nobis there. He remembered with alarm how
Qui-Gon had not been able to clear the fence earlier. Qui-Gon needed
backup.
He knew Adi was thinking the same thing. Without a word or a glance,
they accelerated their drive with a furious series of volleys. They pushed
forward until they were at the entrance to the palace.
Obi-Wan launched a quick reversal, sweeping up with his lightsaber,
then leaping and twisting in midair to come down behind the droids. He
attacked from behind, leveling four with two blows. Meanwhile, Adi and Siri
slipped inside the palace. Obi-Wan leaped again, this time landing on the
threshold of the entrance. With a backward kick that sent a droid flying,
he raced inside.
The palace was dim after the blazing lights of the festival outside.
Obi-Wan sensed rather than saw movement. Adi and Siri were heading up a
grand staircase.
"This way," Adi called to him as she ran.
Obi-Wan started for the stairs. Suddenly, blaster fire erupted near
him. Chips of stone flew from the step where his foot had been. He turned
to attack, but his balance was slightly off. He knew his countermove would
be clumsy.
He saw a blur near his shoulder. Siri had leaped from the top stair.
She twisted in midair, holding her lightsaber high. As she came down, she
sliced off the head of a royal guard droid.
"Thanks," Obi-Wan said.
"Anytime."
Obi-Wan raced up the grand staircase, Siri now behind him. He called
on the Force to direct him, following the stir of air and heat that Adi had
left in her pursuit. He ran down long corridors. Ahead, he heard the sound
of shouting.
He burst into a high-ceilinged room. Jenna Zan Arbor stood in the
center, her hands in front of her. Noor was bound and shackled with energy
cuffs at his ankles and wrists.
"I am holding the formula for the eradication of the waterborne
bacteria," Jenna Zan Arbor said, holding up a palm-sized datapad. "There is
one crucial linkage missing from the version the scientists hold. Only I
can cure this world. If you kill me, many will die."
Qui-Gon's lightsaber was held at his side. Adi stood near him. Obi-
Wan had stopped short. He waited for the two Jedi Masters to decide on a
strategy.
"We do not want to kill you," Qui-Gon said.
"Capture is death to me," Jenna Zan
Arbor said. "It's freedom or
nothing."
Adi and Qui-Gon did not look at each other. Yet Obi-Wan sensed that
they were communicating. Noor's eyes were closed,. but Obi-Wan felt the
Force from him, as well. And this time Zan Arbor had no instruments to
measure it.
He felt, rather than saw, Qui-Gon gather his strength. Obi-Wan felt
its power.
Elation surged through him. Qui-Gon was back.
The datapad flew from Jenna Zan Arbor's hand and into Qui-Gon's
suddenly extended left palm. At the same time, he leaped forward, his
lightsaber slicing the air. Jenna Zan Arbor flinched, but he merely slashed
at a hanging behind her. A large tapestry on the wall flipped over to land
on top of her. At the same time, Adi sprang forward to free Noor.
Qui-Gon calmly tucked the datapad in his utility belt. He bent to
capture Jenna Zan Arbor as she came up from underneath the tapestry,
coughing from the dust.
"After all your experiments with the Force, in the end you failed to
understand its power," Qui-Gon said.
She fixed him with a look of rage. "I should have killed you when I
could."
"That," Qui-Gon said, "was your other mistake."
Obi-Wan looked around for Siri. She should have been right behind
him. She was not. Alarm ticked inside him. Siri was always where the battle
was.
And where was Ona Nobis?
Obi-Wan turned and ran back down the long corridor. He reached out to
the Force, searching for Siri. She was close. He could feel her. In times
of danger, their connection grew closer.
She was above him.
He raced to the staircase. It curved up and around and he lost sight
of the top in the dimness. Obi-Wan dashed up the curving staircase. He
paused at each landing but heard and felt nothing. She was still above him.
At last he reached the top. A long corridor with thick carpets stretched
before him. Frustrated, Obi-Wan paused. Siri was not on this floor.
He spied a small door to his right. Obi-Wan flung it open. He saw a
narrow staircase twisting upward to the roof. In that instant he knew that
Siri was up there and needed him.
He charged up the stairs, activating his lightsaber as he ran. He
burst out onto the roof.
For a moment, his eyes were dazzled. The festival lights blazed far
below. The lawns beyond were inky black. This portion of the roof was flat,
but gables and turrets surrounded him.
He saw the pale violet glow of Siri's lightsaber. Her back was to the
roof wall. Ona Nobis had her cornered. The laser whip wrapped around Siri's
lightsaber, nearly wrenching it from her grasp. Siri placed her other hand
on the hilt and held on, but she stumbled. Ona Nobis withdrew the blaster
from the holster strapped to her thigh.
Obi-Wan charged, even as he reached out a hand to direct the Force.
He could not count on his ability to move objects. But the Force surged
this time, knocking the blaster from Ona Nobis's hand and sending her
staggering slightly from surprise.
Obi-Wan did not stop, but leaped and twisted in order to come at
Nobis from her other side, leaving Siri free to regroup.
The whip furled and his lightsaber hit it with a sizzle. Smoke curled
upward. He twisted the lightsaber to release it. Ona Nobis reached for her
second blaster.
Siri gripped her lightsaber and advanced. Sweat soaked her hair and
tunic. Grimly she swung at Ona Nobis but the bounty hunter twisted away.
"Come on, children," Ona Nobis spoke at last. She bared her teeth.
"You can do better."
Obi-Wan catapulted forward. He worked in tandem with Siri now, the
two of them flanking the bounty hunter. This time when she furled her whip
he leaped high to meet it, corkscrewing his lightsaber around and around so
that the whip would tangle momentarily. He knew that Siri would take the
Blaster fire pinged next to him. It was very close. He hung in the
air, holding on to the whip, every muscle straining.
She tried to twist the whip out of his grasp. Her strength was
extraordinary. He felt his wrist wrench and he began to fall. The whip
spiraled out, free again. He used his fall to twist one more time and
surprise her with a roundhouse kick. Her second blaster flew from her hand
and she let out a howl of rage.
Siri bounded forward to join him as he landed. Now they had her
cornered. She restored the whip to normal mode and sent it flying high to
wrap around a drainpipe nearby.
He saw that she meant to escape. She never stayed if she felt she was
losing. She pulled herself up and over Obi-Wan and Siri, using the whip to
propel herself high above their heads. For a moment her body hung
motionless in the dark night sky.
She was holding on with one hand. What was she doing with the other?
"Siri, watch out!" Obi-Wan cried, as a third blaster appeared in Ona
Nobis's hand.
At that moment, Adi charged through the door to the roof. She leaped
high, slashing at the bounty hunter's whip. She neatly sliced it in two.
A surprised look came over Ona Nobis's tight features. She hung
suspended in midair for one quick moment. Then, without the whip's support,
she tumbled over backward and fell through the inky night far, far below.
CHAPTER 21
Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Adi stood outside the small building near
the Senate on Coruscant.
"Ready?" Astri called.
"Ready," Qui-Gon answered.
Astri flipped a switch. Halo-lights glowed, spelling out
DI I'S NEW CAF
Astri sighed. "I guess it still needs work. That's what I get for
using Fligh as an electrician."
"At least the food is good," Cholly said. He held up a chunk of spicy
ahrisa. "This is the best I ever tasted."
"Mmmph," Tup agreed, his mouth full. Weez handed him a napkin.
Astri beckoned the Jedi inside and placed them at a center table. She
poured tea for them.
"I don't like having Fligh as a partner, but he promised he would go
straight," Astri said. "And he did find investors for us."
The cup stopped halfway to Qui-Gon's mouth. "Legitimate investors?"
"Of course!" Didi bustled forward from the bar. He had lost some
weight during his illness, but had regained his rosy cheeks and merry
temperament. "Fligh and I have learned our lesson."
"I hope so," Astri murmured. "All I know is, I'm keeping the
financial records."
"I'm sure you'll be a great success," Adi said, toasting her.
Astri sat down at the table with them. "Have they set the punishment
for Zan Arbor and S'orn?"
Qui-Gon nodded. "They have been exiled to a prison world for the rest
of their lives."
"I can't believe Uta S'orn was an accomplice," Astri said, shaking
her head. "Her best friend killed her son, and she still continued to do
business with her!"
"Never underestimate the power of greed," Adi said soberly. "Uta
S'orn wanted to make a fortune. Jenna Zan Arbor offered her that
opportunity. She was the backing behind the scientific comp
any on Belasco."
"Their plans nearly went awry when Zan Arbor was sidetracked by her
interest in the Force," Qui-Gon added. "The fact that her friend had a
Force-sensitive son was too tempting for Zan Arbor to resist. And when Uta
S'orn found out what happened, her greed overcame her anger and grief."