voice. He was mumbling something in the other room. His words were not
clear, but the tone was desperate. A look of concern crossed Dedra's face
and she moved toward the living room.
"I'll go check on him," Anakin offered. He left Obi-Wan and Dedra in
the small kitchen and headed back into the living room. Omal was still
sitting on the floor, but his head was now sharply tilted to the side.
Tears were running down the side of his face, and his nose was watery.
Anakin stared at Omal for a long moment. He felt sorry for him, and
wished there was something he could do to help him. If what his Master said
was true, Omal had been horribly and permanently changed.
"You're okay," Anakin said gently, snapping out of his thoughts. "We
just need to get your face cleaned up." He found a small scrap of
relatively clean cloth and used it to wipe Omal's face. Omal looked up at
him gratefully for a brief moment. Then his eyes darted away again and he
resumed rocking back and forth.
Anakin watched Omal for what seemed like an eternity. When he finally
looked away, he felt a strong desire to move ahead with the mission. He had
to know what had caused Omal's downfall - what had the Jedi Council so up
in arms.
He wanted to do it now - to get out of the apartment, get going.
Dedra had told them everything she knew, and Omal was clearly not going to
tell them anything at all. What was Obi-Wan still doing in the kitchen? Was
there a reason it was taking him so long?
Feeling antsy, Anakin began to look around the living room. Piles of
dirty clothes, scraps of food, and all kinds of other items were littered
across the floor. None of them looked particularly interesting or
important.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Anakin spotted something shiny
sticking out from under a tunic. Picking it up, he saw that it was a small
holoprojector. Anakin tried to switch it on, but knew almost immediately
that it was broken.
From his spot on the floor, Omal began to moan softly. "No, Norval.
No," he repeated.
Anakin barely heard him. He loved mechanical things, and couldn't
resist tinkering a tiny bit with the projector. He pulled a tool from his
utility belt and started to fiddle. But the projector was jammed.
"Blast!" Anakin exclaimed. He was surprised by his own frustration.
He usually loved this kind of challenge.
Anakin was about to toss the faulty projector aside when he pressed
the right sequence and it suddenly came to life. At first the image was
fuzzy, and Anakin had a hard time making it out. Then, as he began to
realize what he was looking at, his mouth gaped open.
It was an image of a Jedi Knight being brutally murdered.
Anakin stood frozen, staring at the image. Behind him, Omal's moaning
was getting louder. Finally the sound got through to Anakin, and he tried
to switch the projector off. Only now it was jammed on and didn't shut
down.
The murder played again, and again. The lthorian Jedi raised his
lightsaber - but was hit from behind by a bolt from a blaster. The Jedi
crumpled to the ground, dead.
Anakin's heart began to race. He tried not to look at the image, but
something seemed to be holding his eyes to it. And something about what he
was looking at felt familiar. It was as if he had seen it before and knew
it, somehow. Anakin began to feel ill.
Anakin forced his repair tool into the bottom of the projector and
the image disappeared. He tossed the machine back onto the floor and turned
away. His hands shook slightly and his knees felt wobbly. Omal's moans gave
voice to what Anakin was feeling.
Anakin took a deep breath and tried to clear his head. He knew
messages of this sort were being sent around the galaxy, of course. He'd
been at the briefing with the Jedi Council and had been told all about
them. But he hadn't actually expected to see one. He wasn't prepared.
And now that awful image had been implanted in his mind. Anakin
looked over at Omal. He stopped moaning, but his eyes darted back and forth
between Anakin and the broken holoprojector on the floor.
Anakin was about to approach him when Obi-Wan came rushing into the
living room with Dedra behind him. "I just got a call from the ship," he
said. "It seems Dr. Lundi has decided to talk again. And the pilot thinks
there are vandals lurking around the hangar. He's threatening to leave
Lundi and take off."
Anakin felt relief wash through him and realized just how unsettled
he was by Omal's apartment and the projector's message. He wanted to get
out of there, and right that second was none too soon.
"Did you tell him to hold tight?" Anakin asked, gratefully following
Obi-Wan to the door.
Obi-Wan nodded. "But I'm not sure how long he'll wait for us. He's
been a little jittery since we left Coruscant."
"You can say that again," Anakin said. "The guy has no backbone."
The Jedi said good-bye to Omal and Dedra and hurried back to the
ship. Anakin knew that he should tell his Master about the projector and
the message, but for some reason didn't want to. It was strange, but he
felt guilty about it. It was as if he were somehow responsible for the
message, for what happened in it.
But that makes no sense at all, Anakin thought. I don't even know who
those people are. Or were.
Hurrying after his Master, Anakin decided not to say anything. Obi-
Wan seemed distracted, and it wasn't as if the existence of the message was
new information. He would tell him later, when the time was right.
CHAPTER 17
"I'll check out the exterior of the ship to make sure there hasn't
been any sabotage," Anakin said once they were inside the hangar.
Obi-Wan smiled. He knew his Padawan would rather investigate
something mechanical than do just about anything else.
"Okay," he said. "I'll head inside and talk to the captain - and
Lundi."
Obi-Wan hurried up the ship's ramp and into the cockpit.
"It's about time," the pilot said, though Obi-Wan thought he seemed
relieved to see him. "He's been rambling for the last half hour." He
pointed nervously to the hold, where Lundi sat in his cage. "Something
about an ancient device that's calling to him. And the tides."
"Thanks," Obi-Wan said, turning toward the hold. He took a deep
breath. He wanted this conversation - if that was what it would be - to go
well. He needed it to go well.
"I've just been to see Dedra and Omal," Obi-Wan said calmly. He
watched Lundi closely for some sort of reaction to the names, but didn't
see one. Lundi simply glared at him through the dark slit that was his
visible eye.
Disappointed, Obi-Wan pushed on. "They had some interesting things to
say about Norval."
This time Obi-Wan got a reaction. Only it wasn't one he was
expecting. The professor smiled evilly, his decaying, yellow teeth showing
themselves. The expression appeared frozen on his face. No matter how he
tried, Obi-Wan couldn't figure out what the smile meant.
Obi-Wan felt frustration again
. Lundi was like a blank wall. Though
he was weaker than when Obi-Wan had first seen him ten years ago on
Coruscant, his mind was a puzzle. Obi-Wan could not access his thoughts,
even with the Force. How could he determine who was seeking the Holocron if
the Quermian wouldn't cooperate?
"Norval was on Kodai with you," Obi-Wan said in a loud voice. The
echo it made in the hold surprised both him and Lundi, who looked up. Obi-
wall.
"As was Omal. You were all after the Holocron together."
Lundi leaned forward, as if about to speak. His face was pressed
against the bars of his cage. But a moment later he sat back again, smiling
smugly.
"You had the knowledge, but you needed these children to do your
dirty work. To actually get it for you. You didn't think you could dive
that deep alone..."
Obi-Wan desperately waited for Lundi to jump in, to begin talking, to
object to what he was saying. But the professor seemed to know that was
exactly what Obi-Wan wanted. He sat there like a stone, all of his long
arms folded across his chest. His face was contorted into a defiant sneer.
Obi-Wan suddenly felt the urge to break through the cage's bars and
rip the sneer right off Lundi's face. Even insane and locked in a cage, the
Quermian had power. And at that moment, Obi-Wan hated that power with every
fiber of his being.
"We need to know if the Holocron is still in the crater!" he shouted.
"We need to get to it before - "
Obi-Wan stopped himself. In his anger, he'd almost blurted out
dangerous information. Having been locked up for the last ten years,
Lundi wouldn't know that the Sith had actually returned. He wouldn't
know that others in the galaxy possessed the knowledge he'd sought....
Lundi's tiny head tilted to one side. "You are afraid, boy. But not
of my students," he said, leaning forward again. "No... there's something
more. Something much bigger, much more horrifying." He spoke slowly, as if
he wanted to make sure Obi-Wan caught every word. "The Sith," he said,
sitting back again. His eye widened and Obi-Wan could see his large, black
pupil. "You are afraid of the Sith, of their return."
Lundi sat back and cackled loudly. "You should be," he said.
Obi-Wan gazed steadily at Lundi. He knew the professor wanted him to
say something, to acknowledge his fear. He wouldn't give him that
satisfaction.
The hold was completely silent for several long minutes as the two
stared at each other. Finally, Lundi spoke.
"I can tell you where the Holocron is," he said, sounding remarkably
lucid. "I can even tell you how to get it. The question is, what can you do
for me in return?"
CHAPTER 18
Anakin circled the ship for the third time. He hadn't seen anything
unusual and was beginning to think that the captain was just being
paranoid. Given his personality, it certainly seemed possible. And, Anakin
had to admit, hanging around with Dr. Lundi could be unsettling for anyone.
Satisfied that nothing was amiss, he headed into the vessel. Obi-Wan
was on the bridge programming the Kodai coordinates into the navsystem.
"We're heading to Kodai immediately," he said. Anakin was relieved to
be leaving the planet and moving ahead. His Master, too, seemed pleased.
"The professor finally confirmed that the Holocron is still in its
undersea vault."
Anakin wrinkled his nose. "He could be lying," he pointed out.
Obi-Wan sighed. "I know," he admitted. "He might be trying to put us
in danger. Or he could be toying with us. But it is the only information we
have to go on, and my instinct is telling me that we should trust it.
Besides, we only have the short time during the low tide to check."
Anakin nodded. He was feeling better about the hologram message now
that they were about to leave the planet. Perhaps it was a good time to
tell Obi-Wan about it.
"Master," he began. "I found some - "
"I'm telling you, somebody was out there," the pilot said,
interrupting him. "Someone was messing with my ship."
beginning to get on his nerves.
"I checked everything out," Anakin said reassuringly. "Everything
looked just fine."
The captain looked doubtful but didn't reply as the ship took off.
Soon they could only see the blackness of space through the cockpit view-
screen. The captain prepared for hyperspace.
Anakin suddenly felt tired and was grateful for a bit of downtime.
The trip to Kodai would take more than a day, so he'd have a little while
to rest and collect his thoughts.
Suddenly there was a loud explosion on the engine side, and the ship
rocked hard to the left.
"I told you!" the captain screamed. "Someone has sabotaged my ship.
We have to land immediately!"
"We can't," Obi-Wan said rationally. "That is exactly what the
saboteurs would want us to do."
The captain's eyes went wide. "But we can't fly like this," he said,
his voice rising while smoke poured into the cockpit from the rear of the
ship. "My controls are useless. We'll all die."
Anakin felt annoyance rise in him again. But this time it was mixed
with a sense of guilt. Someone had obviously tampered with the ship, in
spite of the fact that he initially didn't believe the captain's concerns.
"Nobody is going to die," Anakin said calmly. "Just show me where you
keep your tools."
The captain pointed to a small cupboard right outside the cockpit.
Anakin retrieved the kit and moved to the back of the ship, waving his
hands to clear the smoke. The flames had been extinguished by automatic
fire controls and the damaged engine was accessible through a large hatch
in a rear corridor. Though Anakin could fix it, it would not be easy while
the ship was in motion.
Anakin opened the hatch and saw immediately that the circuitry bay
had been fused. That meant that several circuits needed to be re-placed -
and fast. The question was, which ones? Some were trivial, and others would
repair the ship enough for it to fly to Kodai.
Anakin was not particularly familiar with the kind of ship they were
on. He'd never flown one before, and certainly never repaired one. He'd
have to follow his instincts.
Pulling out a light energy tool, he got to work on the circuitry
wires. It was difficult to hold the tool steady, since the ship was banking
in all directions. Working carefully, he reconnected the damaged wires one
by one. Soon the ship stabilized, and the pilot once again had control.
Anakin repaired a few more wires and closed the hatch. On his way
back to the cockpit he passed Lundi's cage.
"Nice work, young one," the professor said. "I could have used you on
Kodai."
Anakin tried to ignore the comment as he replaced the tools in the
cupboard. The Quermian was loony, and said crazy things all the time.
"Good job, Padawan," Obi-Wan said proudly as Anakin entered the
&n
bsp; cockpit.
"We can make it to Kodai now," the captain said. "Though it may take
a bit longer than originally scheduled."
The relief in the cockpit was palpable. They were all safe - for the
moment.
CHAPTER 19
Obi-Wan studied his Padawan as he put away the tool kit. He was
relieved that he'd fixed the engine, of course. But as he watched his
apprentice, Obi-Wan also experienced another feeling - worry.
When Obi-Wan had started this mission with Qui-Gon ten years earlier,