ladder shaft was the labored breathing of the companions and the rhythmic
thumping of their hands and feet on the rungs as they climbed. When they
were certain that the danger was past, Ikrit slowed their pace slightly,
but they still kept going.
To Tahiri it seemed like they climbed forever. Her shoulder muscles
ached from the effort of pulling herself up one rung after another, and
blisters began to form on the soles of her feet.
Suddenly Ikrit stopped. "Wait here," he ordered.
Tahiri paused, gladly hooking an elbow and a leg over ladder rungs to
give herself a chance to rest. Ikrit scampered up the ladder and out of
sight.
"Are you all right?" Tionne panted from below.
"Sure," Tahiri gasped, "but I think I'd be feeling better if I had
remembered to wear my boots."
A second later she yelped in surprise and pain as a finger poked the
sole of her bare foot.
"Hold still," Anakin said. "I have something in my medikit that should
help seal those blisters and protect your feet for a while."
A heartbeat later, Tahiri felt a cooling spray on the sole of one
foot. By the time Anakin finished putting the medicine on both of Tahiri's
feet, Ikrit had returned.
"Only a hundred meters more," the furry Jedi Master said. "There is an
opening to a small room. We will rest there."
"A place to rest sounds really good right now," Anakin admitted.
With higher spirits and renewed energy, the four companions climbed
again. The pain in Tahiri's feet seemed much less important at the moment
than getting off this ladder. Now that she knew how far it was to the end
of her climb, she wanted to get there as soon as possible. Ignoring the
tight knots forming in her shoulder and leg muscles, she climbed faster.
After a few more minutes the companions tumbled through a hatch onto the
floor of what seemed to be a storage compartment. Boxes and bundles were
piled all around, but at least it was a place to rest. Tahiri's arms and
legs felt rubbery, and she didn't think she could move right now even if
she had to. Tionne found the controls for the glowpanels, and the room
filled with a soft light. Tahiri noticed that Anakin's limbs were shaking
almost as much as hers, even though he was sitting down and leaning against
a crate.
In her exhaustion, everything seemed shaky and fuzzy. The whole room
was slightly out of focus and tilted at an odd angle. It was a good thing
she was already on the floor, she thought distantly, because the room was
starting to spin....
Tahiri was surprised when she awoke feeling refreshed and clearheaded.
Her muscles still ached, but they did not quiver or threaten to give way
when she sat up.
"Welcome back," Anakin said, smiling.
Tionne handed her an energy bar and a small flask of water.
"How long-?" Tahiri began. "Not long," Anakin said.
"Only a few minutes really," Tionne answered, "but I used the Force to
deepen your sleep, to help you heal a bit."
"Master Ikrit did the same for me before he went back up the ladder to
scout around," Anakin said. "I feel a lot better now."
"I have good news," Tionne said. "Master Ikrit found an old refresher
unit in the wall behind that pile of crates."
Tahiri grinned. "That's great news."
"I think I have good news, too," Anakin said. "Since I woke up I've
been using the Force to reach out and search the station. It's a little
hazy, but I definitely felt Uldir here."
Tionne looked at him with instant interest in her mother-of-pearl
eyes.
"Where?" Tahiri asked.
Anakin shook his head. "I can't tell exactly. I don't have much of a
bond with him, and he's not strong in the Force. All I know is that he's on
Tahiri took a bite of her energy bar and a swig of water as she
thought over this bit of information. She swallowed.
"Well, it is good to know for certain that he's here. Why don't we
take a look around this area while we wait for Ikrit."
"Sure, we might even find some clues that will help us figure out
where Uldir is," Anakin said.
"All right," Tionne said, "but let's not go far."
Tahiri wolfed down the rest of her energy bar. After they had all
taken turns in the refresher unit, they put their equipment packs back on.
Tionne unsealed the door to the storage chamber, and it slid open with a
hiss. They found themselves behind a screened partition at one end of a
broad room. Air ducts and bright glowpanels were set into the walls and
overhead in the main chamber. The room was filled with the strangest
assortment of gizmos and gadgets and pieces and parts that Tahiri could
remember seeing since that time she and Anakin had ridden inside a Jawa
sandcrawler on Tatooine. A net full of supplies hung in one corner. Ropes,
cords, and flexible steel cables dangled from every part of the ceiling.
Stacks of crates were piled up high against the walls. On a
transparent panel, set like a window into the room partition, a diagram was
etched. They all recognized it right away. Anakin rushed forward to study
the map.
"It - it's Exis Station," he whispered.
A movement beyond the transparent panel caught Tahiri's eyes.
"Something's out there," she whispered, moving up to stand beside
Anakin.
Tionne crowded in next to them, and together they peered through the
window in the screened wall. Tahiri identified the creatures she saw
instantly, since quite a few of them lived on her home planet of Tatooine.
"Ranats!" she hissed in surprise. Anakin nodded.
"But what are they doing here?" Tionne whispered.
They watched in silence for a few minutes. Each Ranat wore a silver
band around its arm and a belt of purple cloth. The Ranats began unpacking
boxes and satchels filled with tools, gears, strips of shiny metal, and
electronic components.
"Looks like they've been salvaging," Anakin said in a low voice.
"Think they're friendly?" Tahiri asked.
"Maybe if we talk to them they could help us find Uldir."
The silver-haired Jedi instructor shook her head and backed away from
the partition, motioning for Anakin and Tahiri to follow.
"We can't risk showing ourselves. Don't forget those droids that
attacked us in the hangar bay."
"These Ranats might work for Orloc-or someone worse," Anakin agreed.
"Let's wait. We may not need to go out this way," Tionne said. "Once
we find out what Ikrit has discovered-" Her voice broke off suddenly, and
her mother-of-pearl eyes went round with surprise. Tahiri followed the
direction of her gaze and then froze. The Ranats had gathered around the
diagram of Exis, chittering and gesturing to each other. The three
companions stood perfectly still, for fear that any movement would be
noticed by the Ranats.
One of the creatures began marking off areas on the map of the
station. Another Ranat held up a handful of mechanical parts and pointed
toward the outline of a small room on the diagram. The first Ranat
chattered and marked off
that area as well. This process continued with one
Ranat after another.
"Those must be the places on the station where they've already
salvaged," Anakin whispered.
When the Ranats finished their mapping, one of them began sorting
small parts into labeled bins that were stacked against a wall. Others
picked up their empty satchels and left the room. Tahiri guessed they had
gone to hunt for more treasures. Another Ranat lifted a heavy crate and
disappeared from view. Tahiri groaned with relief. Her comfort was short-
lived, however. A moment later the Ranat carrying a crate came around the
corner of the partition and saw the companions. The instant it saw them,
the Ranat dropped the crate and let out a warning shriek that brought all
the other Ranats running. did not fall.
Tahiri seemed to understand what he was trying to do. Before he could
give the screen another shove, she was there beside him, helping him push.
Deflecting a hydrospanner that a Ranat tossed over the partition, Tionne
said, "Use the Force."
They did. With Anakin and Tahiri's next shove the partition fell over,
trapping two of their Ranat attackers beneath it. Now Tionne leapt over the
fallen partition. Her lightsaber flashed, striking at the glowpanels on the
wall. One after another they winked out until only a few flickering lights
were left. A moment later a ball of white fur sailed across the room,
clinging to a cable that dangled from the ceiling. Ikrit had returned and
joined the fray. He must have used the Force to yank tools from the hands
of their attackers, for Anakin saw several of the makeshift weapons fly
through the air to hit the walls of the room with a loud clang. Using the
Force, Anakin toppled a stack of crates. The empty boxes came clattering
down. At the same time, Tahiri used the Force to shove boxes and crates
into the path of running Ranats, who stumbled and fell. In the corner
Anakin saw Tionne toss her lightsaber up toward the net filled with
metallic canisters.
Ikrit was still sailing back and forth on the cable in the center of
the room, and Anakin and Tahiri sent one crate after another scooting
across the room toward the rodentlike creatures. The metal canisters
spilled out of the net and came crashing to the floor. The last few
attacking Ranats could take no more. Dropping their weapons, the purple-
sashed creatures fled the room.
"We'd better leave, too," Tionne advised. "They might come back with
reinforcements."
"Quickly," Ikrit said. He scrambled up a cable toward one of the air
duct panels in the ceiling and pushed it open.
"I've discovered an easier way to get around the station." Tionne
switched off her lightsaber and clipped it to her belt while Anakin and
Tahiri climbed the cable, then she followed. Once they were all inside the
air duct, Ikrit closed the panel again so that the Ranats could not tell
how they had escaped. The air ducts were round and roughly a meter across.
Ikrit didn't have to duck and was able to move quickly; the others were
forced to crawl. In a few minutes they came to a branching of air ducts and
paused to consider their route.
"Mmmm," Ikrit said. "It is sometimes difficult to sense those who are
not Jedi." He glanced at Anakin and Tahiri. "Look to the Force. Does it
show you where to search for your friend?"
"I can sense Uldir," Anakin said, "but I can't tell exactly where he
is."
"We know some of the Ranats are around this area, though," Tionne
said. "We're pretty sure that they're working for Orloc." "I'm almost
positive that their sashes were the exact same color as the magician's
robe," Tahiri added. "I'd never forget that color. And if we find Orloc,
Uldir should be somewhere close by."
"She's right," Anakin said. "I don't think the Mage and Uldir can be
far away. We found a map of the station back in the room where the Ranats
were working."
"They were marking it to show where they had explored and done their
scavenging," Tahiri explained.
Anakin nodded. "That's what makes me think we're close to Orloc's base
of operations," he went on. "All of the places marked on the map seemed to
be in one area of the space station. If Orloc is their master, I think
he'll be at the center of that area." Anakin thought for a moment to get
his bearings. "It was that way," he said, pointing through the duct wall at
his right.
"Very well then. Follow me," Ikrit said, heading off down the right
branch of the air duct. The companions crawled for hours, stopping only for
brief periods to share some water out of their packs or to look down into
the rooms they passed. Most rooms were empty, since the Ranats had already
stripped them clean of all useful objects. Each time the air ducts
branched, Ikrit led them toward the area where Anakin believed Orloc must
be. Anakin could sense they were on the right track. The rooms they passed
began to look lived in, with crates of supplies, sleeping pallets, and
droid workstations.
"It's not much farther," Tahiri whispered, "I can feel it."
And she was right. Five minutes later, moving forward as quietly as
possible, the companions found what they had been looking for. Through a
grate in the air duct, they could see the Mage Orloc in his silver-edged
purple robe far below in a brightly lit, high-ceilinged room. Ranats in
purple sashes and droids of all shapes and sizes surrounded the Mage, ready
to do his bidding. Beside Orloc, still dressed in his brown Jedi robe,
stood Uldir, his shaggy chestnut hair thrown back. His arms were raised and
spread wide. Tahiri and Anakin crowded closer to the grate to get a better
look.
"Behold my power," Uldir said. His voice squeaked once, but it sounded
deeper than Anakin remembered. "When I am finished you will go back to your
friends and tell them what you have seen."
"What in the name of the Great Bantha is he doing?" Tahiri whispered.
Glowpanels flickered. Speakers set into the ceiling near the air duct
boomed with the sound of recorded thunder. The Mage fidgeted with the
silver spangles at the edges of his purple robe and watched his student.
Suddenly Anakin heard water running through pipes somewhere nearby. Tiny
droplets of water began to mist down through the room from safety
sprinklers set into the ceiling.
Below, Uldir closed his hands into fists and laughed. The laughter
echoed through the room, growing louder and louder.
"Now tell your friends about the wonders you have seen. Then tell them
to leave," Uldir shouted. "I have no need of their puny powers."
Tahiri's green eyes blinked quizzically at Anakin.
"Who is he talking to?" she whispered.
Anakin scooted around to the other side of the grate to get a better
view. Then he saw it: in the far corner of the room, drenched with
"rainwater" and wearing a restraining bolt, was Artoo-Detoo!
"They have Artoo!" Anakin whispered. He pointed down through the air
duct toward the corner where the little droid was being held captive. "They
put
a restraining bolt on him."
Tahiri leaned forward, trying to see where Anakin was pointing.
"Don't worry," Tionne said, "we'll set him free."
Then, without warning, disaster struck. Anakin and Tahiri were leaning
over on either side of the air duct grate when the entire panel gave way.
For the next minute everything seemed to move in slow motion. The grate
fell, tumbling end over end toward the floor. Taken by surprise, Anakin and
Tahiri fell, too. In a heartbeat, all of Uncle Luke's lessons about the
Force flooded back into Anakin's mind. He could feel his Jedi instincts
taking over. Relax and trust the Force. Through the Force Anakin visualized
the distance from ceiling to floor as nothing more than a short hop. He
thought of the speed of his fall as no greater than it would have been had
he jumped off a low wall.
With his mind, he created a springy cushion of air just above the hard
deckplates. He knew that the floor was no longer rushing up toward him with
a speed that would break his bones when he landed. He let his mind and body
relax. Out of the corner of his eye Anakin saw the ceiling grate strike a
glancing blow to a tarnished pirate droid. The weight of the hard panel
bent one of its firing arms.
The grating clanged heavily to the floor. Anakin sensed Tahiri right
beside him, and he sensed her trust in the Force. Below them Uldir's arm