the durasteel with his lightsaber. He felt the studded spikes on the end of
the whip catch his leg as he turned. The pain seared him, but he kept
moving, raising his lightsaber to meet the flashing whip.
Without Astri and Didi to defend, the Jedi were now free to attack.
They moved toward the bounty hunter as one unit, lightsabers whirling and
arcing, anticipating her moves and the striking, curling whip.
Obi-Wan remembered Qui-Gon's directive to watch the bounty hunter's
shoulders. Her footwork was fast but she had a tendency to lean into her
moves.
She began to retreat backward, though the action of her whip did not
falter. In the glow of the lightsabers and whip, he could read an
expression on her face: sheer rage. No doubt she had never fought Jedi like
this before.
When at last she stood at the edge of the curving ramp, Obi-Wan made
a bold move. He copied her action, leaping up to grab onto the conduit
pipes overhead, then as the whip snaked and curled around him, drove into
her with both feet.
She let out a surprised sound as she flew back, high above the ramp.
She landed with a solid thud, then continued to skid down the ramp. She
tried to stop her descent but the smooth stone was slippery. Her leg
twisted underneath her and her head hit the stone wall with another
sickening thud.
She lay still.
"Hurry, Padawan." Qui-Gon strode to the windows. Together with Obi-
Wan he cut through the durasteel. It peeled back, leaving an opening big
enough for them to get through.
Qui-Gon threw open the cubbyhole doors. Quickly, Obi-Wan helped Didi
and Astri to the window ledge.
"You'll have to carry Astri," Qui-Gon told him. "I'll take Didi."
Without pausing to reply, Obi-Wan swept up the slender Astri in his
arms. Qui-Gon picked up plump Didi with the same ease. Then they leaped
into the air and landed softly on the ground below.
Qui-Gon jumped into the pilot seat of their cruiser. He fired up the
engine. Red warning lights flashed, and there was no answering surge of
power.
"She tampered with it," he said tersely. "Let's try ours," Didi
suggested, already running toward his own cruiser.
They followed, but Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were not surprised when Didi's
cruiser would not operate.
"She has to have transport nearby. If we - " Qui-Gon began, but his
words were drowned out by a piercing, animallike cry.
For a moment, the light was blocked out as the bounty hunter threw
herself out the window above. Her lips were curled back in a snarl.
She landed on one leg, whip flashing, and went straight for Obi-Wan.
CHAPTER 16
Qui-Gon sprang forward to place himself between Obi-Wan and the
bounty hunter as Didi and Astri leaped back to get out of his way. Obi-Wan
used the opportunity to quickly scan the mountainside. It was crucial that
they locate some form of transport. They had to get Didi and Astri away,
even if he and Qui-Gon had to hold off the bounty hunter long enough for
Didi and Astri to take off.
At first he couldn't distinguish anything. The snow was thick and
blindingly white, dotted with boulders and crags. The sun bounced off the
snow, hurting his eyes.
He had only seconds. Obi-Wan drew the Force around him, connecting
him to everything he saw, from the craggy peaks and rocks to the fresh,
dense snow.
He only saw a slight irregularity in the surface of the snow hundreds
of meters below him.
Then he snapped his gaze back. It was a small cruiser. It was white,
and it nestled in the snow, but he made out its outlines.
"Down there," Obi-Wan told Didi and Astri crisply as Qui-Gon's
lightsaber tangled with the bounty hunter's whip. "Below that crag."
"I see it," Astri said.
"Go," Obi-Wan urged, already spinning to cover Qui-Gon's flank.
"Don't wait for us!"
Didi and Astri stepped off the landing platform onto the snow. They
sank into the snow up to their knees. They pushed through, making their way
slowly across the side of the mountain. Drifts alternated with patches of
ice, but they pushed on.
The bounty hunter redoubled her efforts, suddenly launching an
offensive that sent Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan back against the edge of the
landing platform. She had grabbed Astri's blaster and let loose a stream of
fire from one hand while the other expertly plied her whip.
Their lightsabers were a blur as they fought off the frenzied attack.
She pushed her advantage, and they stepped off the landing platform into
the snow.
Now their footing was uneven. Obi-Wan expected an attack, but the
bounty hunter changed her tactics. Instead of pressing on, she turned her
back and raced to the other end of the landing platform.
She poised on the edge and pressed a device in her utility belt. A
thin material skin shot out from her shoulders and thighs, creating a
cradle around her. She leaped into the air and came down on the snow on her
back. Then she dug her heels into the snow and Obi-Wan could see that there
were now spikes protruding from her boot soles.
"She is prepared, as usual," Qui-Gon said.
She pushed herself off and flew down the mountain in the improvised
sled, gaining speed as she went.
"She's going to come at Didi and Astri from below," Obi-Wan said.
"She'll be between them and the transport."
"Exactly. We must reach them first."
Didi and Astri had made some progress. Though the footing was
treacherous, desperation had fueled their speed. They had not seen the
bounty hunter yet.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon hurried down the steep incline in their
direction, carefully negotiating the ice and drifts. Obi-Wan glanced down
the mountain at the bounty hunter. He could not imagine how she would
manage to stop her descent. But as she slid, she unfurled her whip.
With an expert flick, the whip arced in the sky and looped around a
craggy boulder. As the whip went taut, she dug her heels into the snow. Her
treacherous slide was halted. She rolled to her side and sprang up, then
detached the sled and began to race across the mountainside.
She made good progress as she moved across and up the face of the
slope. Qui-Gon called out to Didi and Astri, alerting them to the fact that
their enemy was now below them.
They hesitated, not knowing which way to go. Holding each other, they
stood in the shadow of a crag. If they continued their descent, they would
walk straight into the bounty hunter. The crag was too steep to climb.
Didi looked over at Qui-Gon helplessly.
"Stay there!" Qui-Gon shouted as he pushed through a drift. "We will
come to you."
Obi-Wan wasn't worried. They were closer to Didi and Astri than the
bounty hunter was. They would be able to reach them before she did, he had
no doubt.
They were almost to the pair when the bounty hunter cracked her whip
and sent it flying toward Astri. It lengthened farther than they had ever
seen it go, growing longer and longer as it sailed through the air. It was
not in laser mode, so it did not cut her. Instead, it whipped around her
ankle. Didi desperately tried to hold on, but Astri was yanked off her feet
and slid down the mountain, straight at the bounty hunter. At the same
time, the bounty hunter reached down to her holster, withdrew a blaster,
and shot Didi. He fell softly, silently, into the snow.
"She knows Astri has the data pad," Qui-Gon said tersely. "See to
Didi. I have an idea."
Qui-Gon activated his lightsaber again. He kept it in front of him,
sweeping the snow with each stride to cut a narrow path through it. The ice
melted in seconds, and he was able to hit firm ground. He made fast
progress down the mountain. But not fast enough.
Obi-Wan used the same technique to get to Didi. He fervently hoped he
was still alive. He fell to his knees by Didi's side and reached for the
emergency medpac on his belt. He saw the spreading stain of blood on Didi's
tunic and ripped it open. He quickly poured bacta into the wound.
Didi's eyes fluttered open. Despair pooled in his deep brown gaze.
"Astri," he murmured.
Obi-Wan turned. Qui-Gon had not yet reached the bounty hunter, but
Astri had. She lay at their enemy's feet. The bounty hunter had one booted
foot on her chest. She reached down for the data pad, which had slipped out
of Astri's tunic. Astri held the data pad in a deathgrip. The bounty hunter
set the whip to laser mode and it glowed red.
Qui-Gon was too far away to stop her. "Astri," Didi moaned.
Obi-Wan summoned the Force. He felt the power in his muscles as he
Then he bent his knees and gathered power for the spring. He leaped high in
the air, so high that the bounty hunter sensed his presence in the sky and
looked up, confused. She only had time to raise her arm back before Obi-
Wan, in the same maneuver he had used in the house, came straight at her,
feet first. He hit both of her shoulders with a mighty blow that sent her
backward onto the snow. Obi-Wan landed in the snow, his feet planted on
either side of her body, his lightsaber raised.
"Enough," he said.
She lay rigid, but he felt a flicker of movement in her right hand.
He saw the glint of a vibroblade. Moving only her fingers, she flicked it
with expert aim toward Astri.
Obi-Wan's blow with the lightsaber was only a split second too late.
It grazed the bounty hunter's fingers in a searing wound. At the same time
he leaped backward, twisting in midair to try to catch the blade with his
other hand. He used his Jedi reflexes to slow time down, allowing him to
eye exactly where to grab it. The hilt thudded into his hand.
The bounty hunter stuck her wounded fingers in the snow for an
instant. Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
The pain must have been terrible. She spoke for the first time. Her
eyes blazed hatred at Obi-Wan. "You... will... pay."
Suddenly a lunge line shot out from her utility belt. It had a homing
beacon to her cruiser, attaching itself to it and yanking her backward. Her
body bounced across the ice. It must have been excruciatingly painful.
"Stay with them," Qui-Gon directed, and took off after her.
Obi-Wan watched as Qui-Gon gained on the bounty hunter. She scrambled
into her cruiser. The engines fired and the loading ramp began to close as
Qui-Gon gave a great leap and landed.
Horrified, Obi-Wan saw the flash of blaster fire. Qui-Gon staggered.
"Master!" Obi-Wan screamed.
Qui-Gon fell backward into the bowels of the ship. The ramp
retracted. The ship rose in the air and shot away into the upper
atmosphere.
Obi-Wan could hear as if for the first time the wind whispering along
the surface of the snow. Astri raggedly breathed behind him. The echo of
his own anguished cry reverberated off the mountain as he watched the ship
disappear.
Had Qui-Gon been captured by the bounty hunter, or had he captured
her? Was he mortally wounded? Was he alive - or dead?
The anguish of not knowing made Obi-Wan want to crash to his knees.
But there were wounded he had to care for. Qui-Gon had told him to stay.
"Don't lose heart, Qui-Gon," he whispered. "I'll find you. Hold on."
He would find a way to bring back his Master.