giant turbines began to spin faster.
Obi-Wan guessed her strategy a few seconds too late. He just had time
to grab the controls when the turbines roared to life at three times their
normal speed. A gust of wind picked the craft up like a feather and hurled
it toward the shaft.
Fighting for control, Obi-Wan struggled to hold the ship steady. It
crashed against one wall of the shaft, then smashed against the other side.
He quickly opened the side wings slightly for more control. It wasn't easy
to prevent the ship from crashing and burning in the narrow shaft, but he
managed to keep it heading down the middle as it lurched.
The turning propellers ahead reminded him that he could be cut to
bits. Obi-Wan drew on the Force, concentrating all his will on the task
ahead. Time seemed to slow as he gauged his own speed and the speed of the
powerful rotors. At the last possible second, he activated the wings fully
and flipped sideways. As the ship slipped through the rotors, one of them
clipped a wing. Spiraling crazily, the ship shot out into space.
Obi-Wan fought for control. He activated the third wing to take up
some of the control he had lost. The ship slowly steadied beneath his
hands. He cut back the engines and spun the craft around. Should he follow
the ship, or attempt another landing inside the exhaust shaft? He asked
himself the question, but he knew the ship did not have the control
necessary to navigate that shaft again.
He couldn't leave Anakin to be captured by Siri and Krayn. He could
not allow his Padawan to become a slave once again.
Then as he watched, Krayn's ship blasted into hyperspace in a shower
of light energy.
He could not follow. His Padawan was gone.
CHAPTER 10
Everything had happened so fast. It was rare for Anakin to be caught
by surprise. One moment he had been furious at Obi-Wan but ready to board
the ship, and the next moment his Master was being blasted down the shaft.
His Jedi reflexes still needed honing. Siri-Zora had completely turned the
situation around while he was still absorbing what was happening.
Krayn appeared on the catwalk above.
Krayn was humanoid, but had the size and heft of a natural formation,
a boulder, a tree. His body seemed carved out of rock. His shaved head
glinted in the dim light. As he drew closer Anakin could see various items
hanging from the double utility belt he had slung around his waist. They
swung with the motion of his walk. He clutched a vibro-ax in one meaty
fist, and his small, glittering eyes swept the scene before him with
shrewdness.
A huge Wookiee stood by his side. Anakin realized this must be
Rashtah. Ammunition belts crisscrossed his hairy body and a row of blasters
were strapped to his waist. A jagged scar began under the hair of his scalp
and traveled through his eye down to his lip. An eye patch covered that
eye, hiding the damage. Rashtah waved his vibrosword at Siri and sent his
own bellow of greeting.
Siri reached over and powered down the turbines. Anakin wondered what
his best move would be. There was no game plan for this particular
situation. Would the Siri part of Zora cover for him, or would the
heartless-seeming Zora give him up immediately? She had certainly acted
ruthlessly in the case of Obi-Wan.
His instincts flared. Stay silent. Let her speak.
So Anakin said nothing as Krayn stomped toward them, the vibro-ax
twirling like a child's toy in his other hand.
"What's this? Have you caught our intruder?"
"No. This is nobody, just a slave," Siri said. "I grabbed him as a
shield just in case, but he wasn't needed. I'm afraid our intruders took
the exhaust tunnel back into space."
"If they made it." Krayn's dark eyes glittered. "I gave the order to
jump to hyperspace. If they were in the shaft when that happened, they're
space dust."
"That would be a bonus," Siri said. Her eyes glinted with the same
cruelty as Krayn's.
She hates Obi-Wan, Anakin realized.
Krayn stuck his head closer to the exhaust shaft. "We'll have to
figure out a way to block this from airships. Don't want to be surprised
again. Heads will roll about this one."
While Krayn's back was to them and Rashtah was distracted, Siri
reached over and deftly removed Anakin's lightsaber from his utility belt.
Again, she had been quicker than his perception. She did it so quickly and
smoothly that he barely registered that he had been disarmed. She thrust
the lightsaber inside her tunic in the same smooth motion.
Krayn turned and gave his full attention to Anakin. Anakin met his
gaze squarely. He could imagine that Krayn's gaze had the power to terrify,
but it did not work on him. He was curious and contemptuous, not scared.
"What are you looking at, slave?" Krayn suddenly bellowed, his voice
full of rage.
Anakin realized too late that slaves did not look directly at their
masters. He had never been particularly good at submissive poses, anyway.
Siri lashed out with one leg, twisting it around his so that he was
forced to stumble.
"Show some respect," she hissed.
Anakin gave her a look of pure loathing, but Krayn could not see it.
He kept his eyes at mid-level when he turned back to Krayn.
"He looks strong," Krayn said, stroking his neatly trimmed black
beard. "Should fetch a good price on Nar Shaddaa."
Now that his gaze was mid-level, Anakin realized that the objects
dangling from Krayn's belt were talismans. They were objects Anakin didn't
want to think about, for some of them resembled dried flesh and he could
pick out bits of hair. There were jewels and crystals as well, and a small
silver bell...
The silver bell. Anakin's gaze was riveted on it. He knew it. He
recognized it. It was the bell that Amee's mother had worn around her neck.
Suddenly Krayn's meaty hand reached down and jangled some of the
hanging items. The bell tinkled softly, and a strange pain seared Anakin's
heart.
"Admiring my kill trophies?" Krayn asked him in a low, cunning tone.
"Or do you think you might snatch a jewel or two? Think again, slave. One
of your fingers or your scalp will end up hanging alongside them!"
He laughed, and Siri and Rashtah joined him. As Krayn shook with
amusement, Anakin heard the tinkling of the bell. So Hala was dead. The
sweet sound of the bell mingled with Krayn's harsh laughter until Anakin's
vision blurred with rage. He could kill him, right here, right now. He
would not need his light-saber. He could do it with his bare hands....
"I'd better get the slaves ready for departure," Siri said. "We'll be
at Nar Shaddaa soon. Come, slave."
She prodded Anakin with the butt of her electrojabber. "Might as well
enjoy the ship while you can. Soon you'll be working in the spice mines."
"For the rest of your life," Krayn added, still laughing
Anakin felt his feet move as Siri prodded him again, this time more
sharply. Krayn had not frightened him. Siri had
not frightened him. The
fact that he was alone had not frightened him.
But soon he would be sold again into slavery. He knew firsthand how
hard it was for a slave to escape. He had heard tales of the spice mines
and the mortality rate of the workers there. He knew how dreams of escape
would color his days. He knew how one gray day would follow one gray day,
where he would not lift his head but keep it bowed to work. He knew that
the dull drudgery of his days would fill his soul until the dreams of
escape flattened into a haze of numbing routine.
He thought he had faced his worst fear in the cave on Ilum. He had
not. He realized now that he had just begun to taste it.
CHAPTER 11
Obi-Wan knew that it was useless for him to replay the situation, but
he knew that if he had reacted faster, had jumped off the ship to confront
Siri, he would not be in this position. His shock had slowed his reflexes.
If Siri had been an ordinary enemy, he would not have been frozen in that
pilot seat. If he had not remembered what she had been when she'd been his
friend, he would not have imagined that she was capable of blasting him off
the ship and taking Anakin as her captive.
Obi-Wan paced back and forth on the bridge of the Colicoid ship. He
knew he was lucky to be there at all. He doubted the Colicoids would have
waited for him if their own ship had not been damaged.
Captain Anf Dec had not bothered to hide the fact that he now
considered the Jedi a nuisance. He did not even thank Obi-Wan for
dismantling the weapons system of Krayn's ship, but indicated that it was
the least the Jedi could do. Obi-Wan sensed that the captain was nervous
about the reaction of his superiors to the mission. The Colicoids did not
allow failure in their higher personnel.
He knew it was fruitless to track a ship through hyperspace, but he
had demanded that the Colicoid communication system search the galaxy for
possible exit vectors for Krayn's ship. He had to pressure Anf Dec with the
full weight of the Senate and the Jedi Council before the captain agreed.
Of course the odds were stacked against him. A pirate ship did not
register with host planets. If it needed repairs or supplies it went to a
number of spaceports willing to make a few credits by catering to illegals,
or simply captured a nearby unlucky vessel for parts or fuel.
Maybe, Obi-Wan thought, that was why Krayn had attacked them in the
first place. Perhaps it was a simple mistake. If that were the case, Krayn
was in need of fuel or supplies, and could be heading to the nearest
spaceport that would accommodate an illegal.
So far the Colicoid search had turned up nothing.
But did Krayn make mistakes? Obi-Wan kept circling back to that
question. From everything he'd read and seen in Krayn's data file, the
pirate had managed to survive and thrive when his fellow criminals died in
strategic miscalculations, private battles, and ill-judged alliances. Krayn
was a despicable life-form, but he had intelligence and cunning.
Obi-Wan stopped pacing. He was allowing his worry over Anakin and
disgust at himself to agitate him. When the body was agitated, the mind was
as well
He went still. He breathed. He found the place inside himself that
knew second-guessing was a waste of time. He had done his best, made the
calculations that he could. Any more recriminations would only slow him
down.
As he reached into himself, Qui-Gon's words floated to the surface.
His Master had often said them when they had reached what appeared to be a
dead end in a mission.
Let's look at the who. That will lead us to the why.
He found his gaze resting on Captain Anf Dec. The captain's determined
unfriendliness did not bother him. But other things did. As Obi-Wan tapped
his instincts, he also uncovered a memory. He recalled his unease with
Captain Dec's behavior from the first meeting with him aboard ship. The
captain did not seem a bit worried about the possibility of Krayn
attacking. That was strange, considering the Colicoids had accepted Jedi
help.
Obi-Wan returned to the moment Krayn had first attacked the ship.
There had been something in Anf Dec's manner that had bothered him then,
too.
Obi-Wan focused on the memory, calling up details. He and Anakin had
rushed to the bridge. The captain had given a flurry of orders. He had
given every indication of being close to panic. Colicoids were unemotional
beings. They were trained and held to a standard of reserve. Captain Anf
Dec's obvious fear was an unusual display.
It wasn't his fear that troubled Obi-Wan, however. It was his outrage.
That was what had flustered the captain - he had been caught by surprise.
He seemed to take the attack personally.
But why? The Colicoids had enlisted the Jedi because they knew Krayn's
attack was a possibility.
Or had they? Obi-Wan recalled that Chancellor Palpatine had been at
the meeting. That was unusual. What it could indicate was that the
Colicoids had been pressured to accept the Jedi. The Colicoids hadn't
wanted them along not because they were wary of strangers, but because...
Because...Why?
He didn't have the answer. But when he found it, Obi-Wan knew that it
would lead him to his Padawan.
The Colicoid ship limped into one of the busy orbiting spaceports of
Coruscant. Obi-Wan had already briefed Yoda and the Council by holographic
transmission. He did not need to check in with the Temple. He took an air
taxi to the Senate neighborhood below.
There, he hurried down the walkway opposite the grand Senate complex.
He turned a corner and smiled when he saw a cheerful caf© painted blue with
yellow shutters. The sign read DIDI AND ASTRI'S CAFE..
Didi and his daughter Astri had been good friends of Qui-Gon. Years
ago Qui-Gon had volunteered to help Didi out of a "small difficulty" that
had turned into a major mission involving the health and safety of an
entire planet. Didi had survived a severe blaster wound and had gone on to
become a successful caf© owner with his daughter. He no longer trafficked
in stolen information, but he was still friends with the Jedi, and he kept
his ears open.
Obi-Wan pushed open the door, remembering his first sight of the caf©
thirteen years before. It had been cluttered, crowded, and dirty. Didi had
reigned over the chaotic caf© with good cheer and a paternal way with his
customers, but he'd never managed to keep the tables very clean or the food
very nourishing. It was Astri who had transformed the caf© into a thriving
restaurant with good food. Their clientele had slowly changed. Smugglers
and criminals still ate here, but now they were joined by Senators and
diplomats.
Obi-Wan stood for a moment, gazing over the heads of the customers to
see if he could spot Didi or Astri. It had been nearly a year since he'd
had the chance to visit them. They had both taken the news of Qui-Gon's
death hard.
A tall woman a little older than Obi-Wan stood by a table, chatting
with two customers who wore the robes of Senatorial aides. The woman's
springy dark hair spilled out from underneath a white cap, and her white
apron was stained with various colors. As she motioned to the aides, she
nearly knocked over the teapot. Despite his anxiety, Obi-Wan grinned. Astri
hadn't changed.
She looked up and her gaze met his. Astri's pretty face bloomed into a
wide smile.
"Obi-Wan!" She rushed toward him, knocking over a chair in her haste
to greet him. She threw herself into his arms. Obi-Wan hugged her, feeling
her curls brush his cheeks. He had once felt awkward at such displays of
emotion. Not anymore. Qui-Gon had taught him by example. Obi-Wan remembered
how surprised he'd been as a Padawan to see Qui-Gon enthusiastically hug
Didi.
She drew back. "Are you hungry? I have delicious stew today."
He shook his head. "I need help."
Her dancing eyes turned grave. "Let's find Didi."
A small, rotund man was already heading for them, his soft brown eyes
widened in pleasure. He, too, enveloped Obi-Wan in a huge hug, though he
barely reached Obi-Wan's shoulders. "How my eyes delight me!" he burbled.
"The brave and wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, my good friend to whom I owe my life
and my daughter!"
"Obi-Wan needs our help, Didi," Astri interrupted, for Didi would have
gone on with flattery and sentiment.