cold sweat had broken out on his forehead. He pushed himself back to his
feet.
"Kind of spooky in here, huh?" Tahiri said from behind him.
"Yeah," Anakin admitted. "Definitely spooky."
Walking on the metal mesh made Anakin feel uncomfortable. The weak
light from high above did not penetrate that far, and he couldn't help
wondering if something might be beneath them, preparing to reach up through
the grating. From somewhere in the hangar bay he thought he heard a thump
and a scratching sound. He assured himself that it must be his imagination.
Any space station-even an abandoned one-might have tiny maintenance droids
scurrying about, or maybe some small rodents. Anakin wished he had his
brother Jacen's skill for sensing animals through the Force and
communicating with them. Anakin tried to reach out with the Force to search
for any little creatures that might be in the hangar bay, but he sensed
nothing.
Squeak. Squeak. Was that the sound of a small animal? Or was it wheels
turning? Anakin pushed the thought from his mind. If anything, he told
himself, he should be concentrating on sending out his thoughts to see if
he could sense Uldir anywhere. He was relieved when Tionne finally stopped
in front of a wide blast door.
"We'll go through here," she said. "It leads directly into the
station." Tahiri swallowed hard. "Okay, let's get this over with."
"Yeah," Anakin said, "and let's hope we find Uldir quickly."
The Jedi instructor touched the control panel and the heavy blast door
slid upward. Suddenly a blaster bolt whizzed past Anakin's head and spanged
off the wall of the hangar bay near Tionne.
"Looks like someone found us first,"
Tahiri yelped as she, too, dodged an energy bolt. Then a realization
struck Anakin. The blaster fire was not coming from outside the hangar bay,
but from inside-from behind them. Artoo-Detoo shrilled a challenge at their
unseen attackers. Instinctively Anakin, Tahiri, Ikrit, and Tionne all hit
the floor as more blaster bolts streaked over their heads. But the floor
offered no cover, no place to hide. The metal mesh of the walkway bit
painfully into Anakin's cheek. It wouldn't be safe to stay where they were,
especially if their attackers came at them from underneath. They would have
to make a run for it-and soon.
Uldir concentrated. His arms were stretched out in front of him, his
fingers spread wide. With excitement and pride he watched the gigantic
platform rise higher and higher. The plasteel slab must have weighed a
thousand kilos or more, and yet it felt like he was lifting it with no
effort at all. With a grin of triumph he looked to where Orloc stood in the
corner of the cargo storage chamber.
"Hey, I could be wrong, but I think I'm getting pretty good at this,"
Uldir said. "It's so much easier than the way Master Skywalker tried to
teach me."
Orloc blinked several times and looked surprised, as if he had been
thinking about something else.
"Why, yes... you show great talent," he said. "Now, try to put it
down."
"Okay, here goes," Uldir said.
The Mage gave an absentminded nod and ran a slender finger along the
silver spangles at the edges of his purple robe. Uldir dropped his arms to
his sides and the enormous platform zoomed back down to settle on the floor
with a solid thunk. Orloc stopped fiddling with the spangles on his cloak
and let the material fall back into place. The Mage clapped loudly a few
times.
"Why, you are a natural, aren't you?" he said. "You catch on so
quickly."
Uldir let himself enjoy the praise of his teacher. It was refreshing
to hear someone say that he had done well, for a change. Uldir ran a hand
through his shaggy chestnut hair.
"The lifting part seems easy now. I still can't sense anyone's
feelings like Jedi seem to, though."
"My dear boy, you're too modest," Orloc crooned. "Your abilities are
greater than you know. Here - I'll show you. Tell me what I'm thinking
right now." The Mage crossed his slender arms in front of his chest and
looked at Uldir with a warm smile. Uldir tried to reach out with the Force
to sense what the Mage was thinking. In truth, he could sense nothing. He
thought about all of the marvelous things the Mage had shown him how to do
in the past day: lifting objects, turning lights or machinery on and off
with the wave of a hand, getting a Ranat to obey him by using a "voice of
command," and so much more.
Why, then, was he unable to sense someone's thoughts? The Mage must be
right, Uldir decided-he needed to have more confidence in his abilities. He
opened his eyes again and took a guess.
"You... uh, you're proud of me?"
"There, my boy, you see?" Orloc said with a relieved smile. He stroked
his neatly bearded chin with his slender fingers. "You had the power in you
to sense my thoughts all along. You just didn't trust your instincts."
Uldir felt a rush of relief. He had passed the test-his hardest one so
far. Yes, he thought, I will become a Jedi after all. Or something even
better: an all-powerful Mage like Orloc himself.
"Hey, I know what I'd like to try next," Uldir said, but Orloc quickly
held up a hand for silence. His head was cocked to one side, as if he were
listening to something that Uldir couldn't hear. The Mage's face darkened.
His brows drew together in an angry frown.
"You betrayed me!" he snapped. "Your meddlesome Jedi friends have just
arrived."
"No. They can't be here," Uldir said. "They don't know where I am."
"Really, my boy? Then can you explain why a ship calling itself the
Lore Seeker has just entered Docking Bay 17?" Orloc raged.
"Please," Uldir said, taking a few steps backward. His voice squeaked
with alarm. "It's not my fault. I don't know how they found me-but I don't
want to go back with them. I want to stay here with you and learn."
The Mage rested a slender finger against his bearded chin for a
moment, as if thinking.
"Very well then. I'll believe you for now. Don't worry, my boy, we're
in no danger of being found here. Why, my headquarters are so well hidden
it could take them weeks to find us. Exis is, after all, a very large space
station. I assure you, your old friends will give up long before they get
this far-I'll make certain of that."
Uldir started to breathe a sigh of relief, but the magician fixed him
with a piercing glance from his tawny eyes.
"Be careful, my boy. If I find that you've lied to me, I'll strip you
of your powers, and you will pay with your life."
"You don't need to threaten me," Uldir pointed out, trying to keep his
voice calm. "You're a Mage, so you must be able to sense that I'm telling
the truth."
"Yes." At that, Orloc seemed to relax, and he favored Uldir with a
cheerful smile. He stroked a hand along the spangles on the sleeve of his
robe. "Yes, of course. We'll be quite safe here. In any case, I've already
alerted some of my... faithful assistants to keep your friends away from
this
area. Now then, my boy, what was it you wanted to learn next?"
Uldir shuddered. That had been a close call. He hoped fervently that
his Jedi friends would give up the search for him quickly and leave Exis
Station. He didn't want them to get hurt. Nor did he want a confrontation
between himself and Orloc.
"I want to know how to make lightning and rain," Uldir said in an
uncertain voice that cracked on the word lightning.
The Mage shrugged and fingered one of the silver spangles on his
sleeve. Lights flickered and tiny droplets began to mist down from the
ceiling.
"Lightning and rain, my boy? Nothing simpler. Why, I'll show you how
it's done."
"We have to get off this walkway," Anakin yelled. "We're easy targets
here."
"Quick-through the blast doors," Tionne urged.
Anakin tried to push himself to his hands and knees in order to crawl
toward the opening. A few seconds later, when a blaster bolt hissed over
his head, narrowly missing him, he dropped down flat again.
"This way," Tahiri said, pushing past him. She propelled herself
forward with her hands, arms, elbows, and knees flat to the floor. Anakin
followed suit.
Artoo-Detoo had already made it through the blast doors. Anakin
noticed that the lighting was better out in the corridor, but that Ikrit
was nowhere in sight. Anakin was within three meters of the blast door when
he heard Tahiri's cry of pain. Fearing the worst, Anakin turned back. Even
in the uncertain light he could see that her green eyes were alert and wide
with panic.
"Are you hit?" he asked.
"No-my hair is caught in the floor grating," she said. "You'd better
keep going without me or you'll be shot."
As if to emphasize her point, another blaster bolt zipped past his
ear.
"I can't leave you here," he said. He reached behind Tahiri's head,
hoping to pull her free, but the wavy blonde hair remained stuck. Anakin's
heart skipped a beat as an energy bolt skimmed Tahiri's leg and singed the
material of her flightsuit. The sharp smell of burning cloth filled
Anakin's nostrils. He pulled harder. So did Tahiri. But the hair would not
break or pull free.
"We need something to cut with," Anakin said.
Suddenly Tionne was beside them, her light - saber blazing in her
hand.
"Anakin, get to the blast door and be ready to close it as soon as we
make it through," she ordered.
Anakin wanted to stay with Tahiri, but this was no time to argue.
Tionne blocked and deflected blaster bolts with her lightsaber while he
launched himself to his feet and ran toward the door. He thought he felt
something warm and furry brush against him as he ran, but he could see
nothing. Artoo-Detoo warbled encouragement as Anakin dashed out of the
hangar bay. With one hand on the blast door controls, Anakin turned just in
time to see Tionne's lightsaber slashing in a downward arc.
The next moment it flashed upward again to deflect another blaster
bolt. This time Tahiri sat up. The energy blade had done its work, slicing
her hair free of its trap. A shadowy form helped the girl to her feet, and
Anakin realized that Ikrit was beside her, his fur completely black. Tionne
covered their retreat as Tahiri and Ikrit ran toward the exit. She backed
toward the blast door, still deflecting energy bolts as she went. The
instant that Tahiri and Ikrit were through, Tionne yelled, "Now!"
Anakin hit the controls to close the blast door. The heavy shield
began to lower. At the last instant, Tionne dove through the opening, and
the blast door shut with a heavy clang.
Feeling faint, Tahiri dropped to the floor and gasped in huge lungfuls
of air. For a moment in the hangar bay, she had been certain that she would
die, chained to the floor by her pale yellow hair.
"Artoo, see if you can scramble those locks," she heard Anakin call.
An instant later, his face swam into Tahiri's field of view.
"It's kind of interesting actually," he said, grinning at her. "The
haircut, I mean."
"Pipes!" Tahiri sat up. Her hand instinctively reached to tug a strand
of blonde hair on the side of her head that had been freed by Tionne's
lightsaber. To Tahiri's surprise she found that the blade had made a clean
cut. The hair on the left side of her head was chin-length in front, then
swept down at a smooth angle until it blended with her longer hair in back.
"Truly weird," she murmured. Ikrit, his fur once again snowy white,
scurried over to the two junior Jedi.
"The droids will come," he said in his scratchy voice.
Tahiri heard Artoo-Detoo give a triumphant chirp as his probe
scrambled the lock on the hangar bay's blast door.
"Droids?" she asked in confusion. "What droids?"
"He means," Tionne said, reaching out a hand to help Tahiri back to
her feet, "that our attackers back in the hangar bay are droids."
"I wished to scout without being seen, so I turned my fur black,"
Ikrit explained. "I counted at least eight droids. I returned when I heard
you cry out."
"We'd better get moving," the Jedi teacher said tersely.
"She's right," said Anakin. "Even scrambled access controls won't hold
droids for long. We'll be in danger if we stay here."
Still panting from her narrow escape, Tahiri glanced up and down the
curved corridor. Except for a few doorways and some access ladders that led
up through hatches in the ceiling, the hall was blank and featureless.
"Which way?" Tahiri asked.
In spite of the drumming of her heart in her ears, she could hear
trapped droids already starting to work at the blast door.
"I'm not sure which direction is best," Tionne admitted. "I know where
the main control center is from here, but I have a feeling that Uldir isn't
there. He could be almost anywhere."
"True," Ikrit said. "We must trust the Force."
Artoo-Detoo, who was still plugged into the door's control panel, gave
an urgent twitter. More clanking and thumping came from behind the blast
door, along with a high-pitched whine.
"Uh-oh. Sounds like the droids are already trying to unscramble the
locks," Anakin said.
"Then we'd better decide fast," said Tahiri.
"This way," said Tionne, heading up the corridor.
Just then the blast door raised about ten centimeters, creaking and
groaning. Artoo-Detoo gave a frantic squeal as he struggled with the lock
controls. The blast door reversed itself and began to close again. Artoo-
Detoo still warbled and beeped as if trying to warn them.
"Hurry!" Tionne said, motioning for them to follow. The companions
dashed after her-all except for Artoo-Detoo. The blast door creaked and
groaned again.
"Come on, Artoo!" Anakin yelled.
Artoo beeped twice for no. Tahiri's stomach clenched.
"If we leave him here, those droids could blast him to pieces."
Ikrit said suddenly, "But there is a place for us where the droids
will not be able to follow."
Before Tahiri could figure out what the Jedi Master meant, Ikrit
turned and sprang toward the wall. He caught and clung to one of the
ladders she had seen earlier.
"It will be safest up here if the droids break free," Ikrit said.
"But Artoo won't be able to follow us," Tahiri objected.
"We'll have to circle back for him later when it's safe," Tionne said
firmly. "We won't do Artoo any good if we all get killed now."
Anakin turned and yelled to the barrel-shaped droid as Tahiri began
climbing the ladder.
"Hang on, Artoo! We'll come back for you."
Artoo tweeted to show that he understood. Anakin scrambled up after
Tahiri, and Tionne brought up the rear. The rungs of the plasteel ladder
were hard against Tahiri's bare feet. She grimaced as she climbed higher
and higher, following Ikrit's furry form.
"It's not stairs," she muttered to herself, gritting her teeth. "I
never said anything about not wanting to climb ladders."
Once they were through the ceiling hatch, the ladder led upward
through a tube-shaft that rose hundreds of meters into the darkness above.
The tube curved slightly as they climbed, and soon they could no longer see
or hear the corridor far below them. The only sound to be heard in the