top of the cliff disappeared from view.
The crevasse wall was slippery and wet. Obi‑Wan took a deep breath as
he continued to descend. Part of him wanted to know what he would find
below, and part of him didn't.
Suddenly he felt a flicker of movement in his cable. A second later
his anchor flew over the edge, and Obi-Wan found himself careening into the
darkness below.
CHAPTER 12
Qui-Gon saw a figure standing above them at the top of the chasm. It
leaned over the edge for a split second, then was gone. A moment later Obi-
Wan's launcher cord went slack and his Padawan fell past him with alarming
speed.
Qui-Gon immediately anchored himself to the cliff and reached out to
the Force to try and stop the fall. But the dark energy in the giant
crevasse worked against him. He felt oddly exhausted and had little ability
to concentrate.
Quickly, Qui-Gon pushed past his weakness and focused harder. He
willed his apprentice to do the same.
The sound of Obi-Wan's launcher anchor scraping against the side of
the crevasse was music to Qui-Gon's ears. After a few seemingly endless
seconds it caught, jerking Obi-Wan to an abrupt halt. He dangled in the air
somewhere below Qui-Gon.
"Are you all right, Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon called down. His voice echoed
off the chasm walls.
"I'm fine," Obi-Wan replied. "And I can see the bottom of the
crevasse."
Qui-Gon tested his line. It was still secure. Then he rappelled the
rest of the way as quickly as he could. By the time he got to the crevasse
floor, Obi-Wan had stowed his cable launcher and was searching the area by
the light of a glow rod. The crevasse floor was rocky and covered by
slippery vegetation. They would have to tread carefully.
"I don't see anything," Obi-Wan said. His voice sounded strangely
hollow, and Qui-Gon wasn't sure if it was because of the chasm, his fall,
or because they were so close to the Holocron. The concentration of dark
knowledge could tap one's strength. He certainly weakened himself. But the
strange hollow feeling also let Qui-Gon know they were on the right track.
He felt at once repelled and drawn closer.
Qui-Gon ignited a second glow rod and the Jedi searched the area
until they came across a series of footprints. With the wet vegetation
covering the chasm floor, it was impossible to tell if there was more than
one set of marks.
As they moved farther away from their decension point, Qui-Gon heard
a low rumble. It sounded as though a storm was picking up. Or was the sea
rising? It was now well past the time of the lowest tide and the water
should be coming back up.
A flash of lightning split the sky above. In the blast of light, Qui-
Gon thought he saw a figure struggling toward them. But before he could be
certain, a plume of water began to gush up through a large gap in the rocky
shelf they were standing on. Shooting meters above his head, it completely
blocked Qui-Gon's view and nearly knocked both Jedi off their feet. As it
rained down on them and seeped into his boots, Qui-Gon was surprised to
find that the water was hot.
With a sudden sense of dread Qui-Gon realized that they were at the
bottom of one crevasse, but that there were probably several just like it
below. The seafloor was a honeycomb. They were by no means on solid ground.
Water continued to push out of the hole with remarkable force. There
was no question that the tide was turning. When the gush finally subsided,
they were up to their ankles in hot seawater. Several meters ahead of him,
on the other side of the gap, Qui-Gon could see a crumpled form lying on
the crevasse floor.
It was. The Quermian lay limply on the crevasse floor with his face
partially in the water. The apparatus that normally covered one of his eyes
was gone, revealing an empty socket.
Qui-Gon was almost upon the professor when he lashed out. "You can't
stop me!" he cried, lifting his head. One of his gangly arms fumbled for
something under his robe, and he shakily pulled out a blaster. The weapon
wobbled in his hand, and he fired recklessly.
Qui-Gon quickly dodged, escaping the blast in spite of the close
range. Behind him, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber. The blue blade cut
through the air, deflecting the bolt and knocking Lundi's blaster out of
his hand. The weapon skittered across the crevasse floor and fell into the
geyser gap.
"No!" Lundi cried. He struggled to get to his feet, then collapsed in
the water.
"Where is the Holocron?" Obi-Wan demanded, pulling the Quermian to
his feet.
"In my hand! In my hand! I held it in my hand!" Lundi screeched,
jabbing at Obi-Wan with his pointed fingers.
"Where is it now?" Obi-Wan asked through gritted teeth, binding as
many of the professor's skinny wrists together as he could catch.
"Let me go. Let me get it. It's not for you!" Lundi spat in Obi-Wan's
face and flailed wildly but he did not have the strength to break free. "I
should be the one!"
Qui-Gon's mind reeled. He could feel that they were close to the
Holocron. Very close. He tried to focus, to find its location, but the dark
side was playing tricks with his mind. It was so near and still beyond his
mental vision. There was so much he didn't understand. If Lundi had held
the Holocron, where was it now? Did someone else have it? Had he been
unable to handle the power?
Questions were still forming in his mind when the rock beneath Qui-
Gon's feet shuddered. For a split second the Jedi Master considered diving
into the swirling waters to find his answers. With a glance at his
apprentice his sanity returned. If the Jedi could not recover the Holocron
it was unlikely that anyone else could, either.
"I'll carry him," Qui-Gon told his Padawan abruptly. He did not want
to waste his strength explaining himself.
Before Qui-Gon could lift Lundi from the chasm floor, a second rush
of water hurtled out of the gap. Obi-Wan saw it coming and steadied his
Master, helping him get the Quermian onto a shoulder. But now the water was
halfway up their calves.
Obi-Wan led the way, holding his glow rod out in front of them. They
had to walk carefully along the rocky shelf, back to the crevasse wall.
The water around Qui-Gon's legs made it difficult to know where to
step, and Lundi was continuously flailing several arms and raving in his
ear.
"The Holocron!" he screamed, struggling against Qui-Gon's firm grip.
"I must get the Holocron! It's mine. Mine!"
Qui-Gon tried to ignore the professor, which wasn't easy. Finally he
could see the place where they'd descended. But how were they going to get
back up to the top with a maddened Quermian and only one anchored cable
launcher?
"I can climb up and toss the cable back down to you," Obi-Wan
suggested.
Qui-Gon wasn't sure they had time for that - or that he could make it
while holding onto Lundi.
But he didn't see a better option, and he
couldn't think with Lundi screaming in his ear.
Obi-Wan had just hoisted himself off the rocky shelf when a small
ship appeared overhead. Dropping back to the floor, he and his encumbered
Master pressed themselves against the crevasse wall for cover. There was no
way of knowing who was inside, or what they were after.
The ship descended as close to the crevasse as it could, and a long
ladder dropped down in front of the Jedi. The vessel looked vaguely
familiar, but in the darkness it was hard to identify it. Obi-Wan looked at
his Master with uncertainty. Qui-Gon was not clear about the ship, either.
But he was not one to refuse help that they truly needed.
The Jedi grabbed hold and climbed. Even with the evenly spaced rungs,
getting the struggling professor safely to the ship was no easy feat. About
halfway up, Lundi passed out. When Qui-Gon finally pulled himself into the
ship, he was exhausted. Holding Lundi with one arm Qui-Gon gripped each
step with his teeth in order to move his free hand to the next step. Twice
his boots slipped on the wet rungs, nearly sending him and his heavy load
into the waters below. At last he reached the ship's hatch and dragged
himself and his burden aboard.
"Nice to see you again," came a gritty female voice from the cockpit.
Qui-Gon was surprised to see Elda. She grinned at his reaction.
"Didn't expect to see me, did you?" she asked.
Qui-Gon shook his head. "But it's a pleasure," he told her sincerely.
"Thank you for coming."
The pilot turned back to her controls and lifted the ship into the
air. "You don't have to thank me," she replied. "Something about you or
this place got under my skin, and I came back shortly after leaving. I just
couldn't leave you here. After all, you saved my ship from being blown up.
I wanted to return the favor."
"We're grateful," Obi-Wan remarked as he slumped into a chair.
Qui-Gon set Lundi down in another seat and secured him to it with a
length of cable. He didn't think the old Quermian would have much strength
when he woke, but he didn't want to take any chances.
Suddenly the professor's head snapped up.
Qui-Gon stepped back, but Lundi craned his long neck forward, forcing
the Jedi against the ship wall.
The Quermian's good eye rolled around in its socket as he closely
examined the Jedi. "Peacemakers!" he spat. "You have begun a war." Lundi
whipped his small head back and forth on the end of his slender neck. "War!
War!" he repeated over and over, each time his voice growing louder and
more shrill.
Qui-Gon opened his mouth to speak but saw that it would be of little
use. He could only watch as the once brilliant historian whipped himself
into a frenzy. The power of the dark side had corrupted him. It was clear
to the Jedi Master that Lundi was insane. He would be escorted back to the
Temple and evaluated. Qui‑ Gon felt quite certain that he would need
psychiatric help. And there were also questions for the Galactic Republic
regarding what he'd intended to do with the Holocron.
This was not the way Qui-Gon had hoped to return from this mission.
He did not have the Holocron. His apprentice seemed rattled. There was also
still the question of who, besides the Jedi and Professor Lundi, knew it
was down there. Who had unfastened Obi-Wan's cable launcher? Had anyone
else been able to get down into the chasm? The best they could hope for was
that the Holocron was still at the bottom of Kodaian sea - at least until
the tide dropped again in ten years.
"You can't handle it! You don't know what to do with it! You don't
deserve it!" The professor raved on. Qui-Gon wasn't sure if Lundi was even
talking to him any longer.
Taking a deep breath, Qui-Gon tuned out Lundi's mad rants. He tried
to quiet his mind, consoling himself with the fact that the Holocron was
not in Lundi's possession. Still, he knew this mission was far from over.
TEN YEARS LATER
CHAPTER 13
"Pathetic weaklings," Lundi spat. His uncovered eye rolled in its
socket and a line of drool dribbled down his chin. "The power was mine -
within my grasp. But you... you snatched it. You stole it away."
Obi-Wan watched the insane Quermian struggle in his bindings. The
anger seething inside him was tangible, and the Jedi felt certain that
Lundi would kill him if he could. But aside from the lucid declaration of
the power he'd nearly had and then lost, much of what the professor said
was incomprehensible.
Professor Lundi had almost lost his life on Kodai when he'd attempted
to go after the Sith Holocron buried under the planet's vast sea. He'd
survived, but his sanity was gone - eaten away by the ancient device
lurking under the pounding waves.
Lundi writhed in his seat, trying to get free.
Since that fateful night on Kodai he'd been tried for the crime of
attempting to bring a great evil into active existence in the galaxy. Not
only was he trying to obtain the Holocron, there was significant evidence
that he'd intended to use it for evil purposes.
This was not a crime the Republic took lightly.
Lundi himself had confessed to the crime. In fact, during the trial
he'd boasted about momentarily having the Holocron in his hands. It wasn't
easy to get his statement. His rants sometimes lasted days, ending only
when the mad Quermian collapsed. Even then, after he'd been bound and put
in a cell so that he couldn't hurt himself - or anyone else - he continued
to twitch and mutter angrily in his sleep.
"Weak child," Lundi growled, glaring at Obi-Wan through the bars of
his cell. "You are nothing. Nothing."
Obi-Wan stared back at the professor. His feelings for Murk Lundi had
not changed in ten years. The professor's evil and insanity thoroughly
repulsed him, and Obi-Wan would have liked to remain as far from Lundi as
possible. But he could not defy the Council's decision. An assignment was
an assignment.
Obi-Wan had been surprised when he and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker,
were summoned to the Temple earlier that day. Out of the blue, the mission
they were on was taken over by another Jedi team. This had never happened
to Obi-Wan before. Whenever he and his deceased Master Qui-Gon Jinn or he
and Anakin were assigned to a mission, they always saw it through to
completion. At least until now.
As they'd made their way through the Temple corridors, Obi-Wan had
noted that Anakin was annoyed by the abrupt shift in plans. The thirteen-
year-old apprentice had clearly been enjoying himself on the originally
assigned mission - it allowed him to tinker with the weapons systems on a
sleek ship.
"This better be good," he'd grumped.
Obi-Wan had counseled the boy, telling him that even if it wasn't
"good," it would certainly be important. Anakin had merely rolled his eyes
as they'd entered the Jedi Council Chambers.
Obi-Wan had momentarily marveled at this. As a Padawan learner,
entering the Council Chambers always made his palms sweat, his heart rac
e.
An incredibly important place to be, it never failed to make him slightly
nervous. Anakin never showed signs of nervousness upon entering the Council
Chambers. He simply walked right in, as if it were the home of an old
friend.
As soon as he and Anakin had entered the Chambers, Obi-Wan knew that
whatever had brought them there was serious. All of the Jedi Masters were
present, and the expression on Yoda's face was unusually grave.
"Rumblings once again about the Sith Holocron on Kodai there are,"
Yoda said, not wasting any time. "Planning to recover it someone is."
Obi-Wan had felt a wave of fear go through him. He'd been having
troubling dreams and visions for several nights. At first he hadn't been