by Jude Watson
"Have you heard Joylin's ultimatum?" Obi-Wan asked Teda. "He is threatening to execute your loyal officers. Hansel is the first."
"I heard. Oh, poor Hansel. I feel so very badly for him," Teda said with a sigh. He rubbed his hands together. "Now, are you sure you have enough fuel? We are traveling to the Core, to Coruscant."
"Coruscant?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Teda, be quiet," Zan Arbor snapped, her voice hard. "Who is your text doc expert?" she asked Obi-Wan. "Waldo," Obi-Wan said, indicating Anakin.
Zan Arbor turned. The sun came out from behind a cloud, and Anakin felt suddenly exposed in the bright light, even with his headgear disguise.
A long moment ticked by. Anakin felt uncomfortably warm. The Force suddenly surged. A warning.
"I know you," she said.
"I don't believe so."
"We have crossed paths."
"Perhaps," Obi-Wan said. "We've traveled widely."
"Joylin has closed down the spaceport, but we have received permission to leave," Siri interrupted. "However, we must do it within the hour. Can you be ready?"
"I am ready now," Zan Arbor said. Her attention slid away from Anakin.
There were more pressing matters to deal with.
"Then let us go," Obi-Wan said.
There was a commotion outside. Teda leaped to his feet, a blaster in his hand. The Jedi turned.
The real Slam and the rest of his gang burst into the courtyard. Slam pointed a finger at Obi-Wan. "Impostors!" he cried.
Chapter Fifteen
Teda looked alarmed, but Zan Arbor suddenly smiled, as if she had just figured something out. She turned back to Anakin.
"Jedi," she said. "Now I remember."
Now Teda looked panicky. "Jedi?"
She rose and drew closer to Anakin, ignoring the Slams and the other Jedi. "Good disguise. But it isn't your face that beings remember. It's your manner. Your power. The way you move. I remembered you after our visit together on Vanqor. I asked about you. Teda, don't you admire me for recognizing that this scruffy prisoner, one among so many, was different?
You're Anakin Skywalker."
She gazed at him with a hungry expression. Anakin felt unnerved.
"I have studied the Force for so long," she murmured. "Never did I expect such a prize."
"I'm not your prize," he spat out.
"Well, you're my prisoner, and that's the same thing. Do you know how many guards are surrounding you right now?"
Obi-Wan shot Anakin a look. The Jedi could fight. They could escape.
But Obi-Wan was telling him to wait. They had more to discover. The stakes were too high.
"We can take them to the prison and have them executed on the spot,"
Teda said.
"Don't be so hasty," Zan Arbor said.
"Look, you don't have to kill them," Slam said, looking uneasy now.
"Just tell them to stop impersonating us."
Valadon, as tall as Siri and as blond, shot her an icy look. "And give us our clothes back."
Zan Arbor had not taken her eyes off Anakin. "Do you know what we have here, Teda?"
"Yes," he moaned. "A big headache."
"Leverage. Remember our discussion before? If we bring a great prize to our partner, he will look at us differently. We can negotiate a different split."
"What are you talking about, Jenna?" Teda asked impatiently. "Prizes?
Leverage? Please remember I am a ruling ruler who was just kicked out of his palace. I'm not in the best of moods!"
"The Chosen One," Zan Arbor said softly to Anakin, so that no one else could hear. "I was told about you. My interest in the Force is deep. Enough to know how your destiny is your burden. Do you remember the Zone of Self- Containment? I can bring that back to you."
He remembered feeling content, a contentment without a tether to sadness or guilt. There was just the sun and serenity, a serenity he had never achieved as a Jedi. The Jedi had promised him that, and it had not happened. Perhaps it never would.
"Ah," she said softly, "speaking of temptation…"
He pulled off the mask. There was no need for it now. "I'm not tempted by you," he responded.
"I saw how you enjoyed it," she said. "I can make all your burdens disappear."
"My only burden at the moment is having to talk to you," Anakin shot back.
She smiled. Anakin could see that once, before evil had twisted her, she had been seductive. Her smile was lush, appreciative, inviting.
"You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago," she said.
Obi-Wan overheard that. "Qui-Gon Jinn," he said. Zan Arbor whirled around. She walked closer to Obi-Wan. "Do I know you?" "Obi-Wan Kenobi."
She laughed in delight. "Obi-Wan! But you were just a boy! You've grown up well," she said, appraising him. "I heard Qui-Gon died on Naboo.
And Yaddle has recently 'joined the Force,' hasn't she — a Jedi Council member? It makes you think, doesn't it?" She shook her head. "What is happening to the Jedi? Their strength diminishing, their best leaders struck down. And yet they don't see that they are declining. Such a pity to watch. So intriguing to study."
Anakin saw Siri's eyes flash. She did not speak. He knew from experience that she did not spar with villains. She just waited her turn.
She was absolutely certain at all times that she would prevail in the end.
He liked that certainty. He held an image in his mind of Zan Arbor back on a prison world while he, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Ferus watched her being led away. He needed to hold on to that vision.
"Jenna, we need to plan a plan," Teda said irritably.
"Oh, Roy, relax," Zan Arbor said. She waved at the tea table, indicating the Slams. "Slam, Valadon, have some refreshment. We need to talk. You are going to transport us off the planet — don't worry, we know where your transport is — and we have a proposition for you that the Jedi have already accepted on your behalf."
Easygoing as always, Slam pulled a chair up to the table and poured himself some tea. "This is sounding more promising. How happy I am that your messengers found me."
"Meanwhile," Zan Arbor said, "Teda, call the rest of your guards — and I mean all of them. I want General Yubicon in charge."
"But he's my personal bodyguard now!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby. I am tired of your whining." She turned to the Jedi. "They have superior weaponry, I assure you. And if you don't want anyone else harmed, you'll do best to comply." She gave a pointed look at the Slams. It was clear she would sacrifice them if the Jedi did not cooperate.
The guards moved closer. Teda spoke into a comlink and they heard the humming of swoops as more guards took to the air. They hovered above the courtyard. Anakin saw blaster rifles pointed at them — and Slam, Valadon, and the other members of the gang.
"Your lightsabers," Zan Arbor said. "Give them to General Yubicon."
Obi-Wan slipped his and Siri's lightsabers out of his belt and handed them over. Ferus and Anakin followed. Anakin knew his Master would never hand over his lightsaber unless he was fully intending to get it back shortly.
"Put the lightsabers in the prison vault," Zan Arbor ordered the general. "I'll want to study them. Put the prisoners in the holding cell for now and have them guarded severely. We'll pick them up as soon as we finish here." She leveled her icy gaze on General Yubicon. "Don't let them out of your sight, don't listen to them, and don't make any mistakes. Go."
General Yubicon's eyes flickered as he stuffed the lightsabers into a satchel that he slung on his back. Anakin could see that he did not like taking orders from Zan Arbor. Teda didn't say a word. Anakin realized who was truly in charge. Zan Arbor had Teda under her thumb.
Slam cocked his head at them. "Sorry. I didn't mean for it to go quite this far. But all's fair."
"That's very true," Obi-Wan said. "If you join up with these two, you'll get what you deserve."
The Jedi were roughly herded out of the house and pushed along a rutted road that ran through woods with bra
nches so thick with dark green leaves that they blotted out the sun completely.
They were marched farther down the path — playing along for now, waiting for the right moment to turn the tables. The area felt desolate and dank. Over the thump of footsteps and the buzzing of the swoops overhead, Anakin saw General Yubicon speaking to his assistant as they walked. He called on the Force to help him tune out the noises around him and focus on what the officer was saying.
"… thought we had a strong leader, but he is just as much a sham as they say he is. Am I supposed to pledge my loyalty now to Great Leader Zan Arbor?"
"What can you do?" the other officer asked in disgust. "One day we're living in a palace in Romin, the next in the middle of a swamp. It's enough to make me join the resistance."
"And what would the resistance do to you if they found you?" the first officer said. "Look what they're doing to poor Hansel. Listen, we're safer with Teda. Or at least I thought so. Now I suspect that Zan Arbor is planning to take off with him and without us. Teda said he would take his first officers, but will she let him? They're planning something big. Teda said they will have the Senate to do their bidding."
The Senate? Anakin gave a quick glance at Obi-Wan. He could tell his Master was listening, as well.
"Here we are," the other officer said. "Mind yourself. The prisoners know something is up, somehow. They're restless. Not to mention starving."
"Just be glad you're not in their place," General Yubicon said.
The prison rose ahead, long and low, built of dark green duracrete so that it would not be visible from above or from the road. The resistance had not gotten here yet. The Jedi passed through energy gates and into the compound. A door rose into the ceiling to admit them.
The inside of the prison stank of dirt and rot. There were no windows.
A security console ran along a blank wall. Droids that had not been affected by the revolt in the city sat monitoring the equipment. Their sensors flashed green as General Yubicon entered.
Energy cages hung suspended from the ceiling. The walls and floors were stained with dark matter. Desperation and pain seemed to be as much a part of this structure as durasteel and duracrete.
Obi-Wan looked at Anakin.
Not yet, but soon.
The guards flooded in behind them. Now they would not have to deal with the swoops overhead.
The guards opened a second door, which also rose vertically. Behind an energy fence was an enormous cell. It was stuffed full of beings and aliens from many worlds. Most of them wore rags and were barefoot. They eyed the guards with hatred. Some of them looked cheered at the prospect of breaking in new prisoners.
"When, Master?" Anakin asked urgently.
"It seems to me," Ferus said politely, "that now would be an extremely good time."
"Okay," Obi-Wan said. "Now."
The four Jedi moved as one. There were twenty-two army officers in the prison and five prison droids within their sight. No doubt more droids were in the inner rooms of the prison. But now was as good a time as any to attack.
Obi-Wan, Ferus, and Anakin went for the officers, using the Force to push the first line with such power that they bowled over their fellow officers. Blaster shots went wild and pinged on the prison walls. Siri whirled and kicked General Yubicon in the chest, knocking him backward. His head hit the duracrete floor, knocking him out with the stunned expression still on his face. She leaned over, deftly plucked the lightsabers from the satchel, and tossed them to the Jedi.
Anakin leaped above the guards. He grabbed the bottom of an energy cage and flipped himself in a midair somersault, then landed behind them.
From there it was easy to simply disarm two officers before they had a chance to turn around. Without their weapons, the guards turned, looked at General Yubicon on the floor, and simply ran out.
Lightsabers blazing, the Jedi advanced through the rest of the officers and droids, deflecting fire. Behind them, the prisoners roared approval.
Then Anakin heard a voice above the rest, coming from the holding cell. The prisoners were shouting, and it took him a moment to make out the words. "The stun nets!"
More guards flooded the main room, stun net launchers in hand. They didn't care that they would snare other guards. They let loose the nets with their electrical charges. The nets hung in the air for a split second.
In a blink of an eye they would blanket the room.
In that split second Anakin made his calculations. He knew if they were hit with the nets, the paralyzing charges could hamper them. The nets would ensnare them, and every time they moved, sensors would deliver another paralyzing charge. Better to avoid them completely then slash away with their lightsabers. The nets wouldn't stop them, but they would slow them down.
He stepped forward before the others could move. He held up a hand. He felt the Force in the room. Could he do it? He reached out with his mind, gathering in the Force. He thought of his lessons with Soara Antana.
Everything in the prison became fluid to him. It was easy to move, easy to manipulate.
Using the Force, he flipped each of the nets backward and onto the guards.
The guards fell, shouting and kicking. Within moments, they were still, unwilling to cause another charge to jolt them.
The prisoners sent up a roar.
Suddenly, the prison wall began to glow. A red line appeared on the wall, moving upward quickly.
"The army must be outside," Obi-Wan said. "They're using laser artillery. Watch out… the wall is going to come down!"
They leaped backward as the entire entry wall suddenly fell with a crash, exposing the prison to the woods beyond.
Then they got the bad news. Outside was an entire battalion of soldiers.
"Surrender!" an amplified voice cried.
"Let us out!" one of the prisoners cried. "Let us fight!"
Obi-Wan leaped over and deactivated the energy fence. The prisoners rushed out, grabbing blaster rifles and stun batons from the fallen guards.
"We can do it. Just give us a chance." A short Romin in a tattered tunic stood next to Obi-Wan, a blaster in his fist.
"We didn't free you to see you slaughtered," Obi-Wan said. "That's an army out there. With grenade mortars and missile tubes."
"Surrender or die!" the voice repeated.
Anakin looked at the prisoners. Their faces were grim. They were ready to face whatever came.
"Do what you want," the prisoner said. "We've been inside too long. We won't surrender."
"We can win, Master," Anakin urged.
"There has to be a weapons room," Obi-Wan said rapidly to Anakin. "Go with Ferus. Bring back what you find."
Anakin motioned to Ferus, and they leaped over the guards in the stun nets and ran down the hall. It wasn't hard to find the weapons room. They found blaster rifles and more stun net launchers. The prisoners crowded in with them, quickly grabbing blaster rifles and stun batons. Anakin picked up a flamethrower. Then he and Ferus hurried back to Obi-Wan and Siri with the stun nets.
"They're re-forming their battle line," Obi-Wan said. "They want to risk as few soldiers as possible. These stun nets can come in handy. But they don't have much range."
"You wouldn't have to worry about range from a swoop," Ferus said.
"There are some outside the front door."
"You'll get blasted into the sky if you stick a toe out there," Obi- Wan said.
"Cover me," Ferus said.
Anakin would have just run. But Ferus waited to get Siri's nod. He dashed toward the front of the building.
"Anakin, use that flamethrower launcher," Obi-Wan said. "Don't hit the front line. Just keep it moving along so they back up. Try to drive them between those trees so that Ferus can drop the nets. Siri, come on."
Anakin powered up the flamethrower while Siri and Obi-Wan ran out. The army began to fire. Using wrist rockets and small missiles, the army tried to advance, as Anakin concentrated the flamethrower on the center of the line.
&
nbsp; Siri and Obi-Wan Force-jumped past the flames, aiming their lightsabers at the weapons the troops had left behind as they hurried to escape.
Ferus flew overhead, piloting the swoop with one hand on the bars, using his knees to steer. With astonishing speed, he activated the net launchers, one after the other, and tossed them over the front lines.
The soldiers fell, and the others behind were confused. They looked to their captain, but he had been diverted and was ordering the others to put out the fire that had started in the brush. Smoke began to roll over the soldiers, making them cough.