Obi-Wan drew his breather to his face with one hand while he activated his lightsaber with the other. With a quick twist, he jabbed the lightsaber through the hatch and carved a large O through the thick metal. He took a step back then threw all his weight against the hatch, knocking it clear out of its plastoid frame and into the next chamber.
A great whooshing sound burst from the docking port tube, and Obi-Wan felt the air whip by him as if he had suddenly been caught in a strong wind. An automatic safety feature had kicked in, and it suctioned the gas out of the docking tube and into space.
Obi-Wan removed his breather and returned it to his belt. Then he deactivated his lightsaber, but kept the weapon within his grip.
Obi-Wan moved forward into the Bartokk freighter. He found himself in a dark corridor that ran the length of the ship. He looked to his left and right and tried to get his bearings. From ventilation slats in the metal floor, steam rose and created a damp, wispy haze that impaired his ability to see either end of the corridor. He guessed that the Bartokks’ bulbous, insectoid eyes did not require much light to find their way around on the ship.
Besides the darkness, there was an unusual sense of quiet within the corridor. The only thing Obi-Wan could hear was the steady, mechanical hum of the sublight engines, a sound that emanated from the main engine room at the left end of the corridor.
Since Obi-Wan had breached the Bartokks’ security system in the docking port tube, he knew they must have been aware of his presence on their freighter. He was considering where to begin his search for the captured Chup-Chup when he saw a shadowy figure move toward him from the engine room area. The figure was clinging to the corridor’s ceiling. A flash of metal indicated the figure carried a sharp knife.
Obi-Wan heard the sound of a crossbow being cocked. A quick glance to his right revealed that a second figure was moving toward him. It crawled along the grilled floor from the other end of the corridor.
Obi-Wan realized he was trapped between two Bartokk assassins.
Obi-Wan activated his lightsaber and the weapon illuminated the dank corridor. The Bartokks pounced.
The Bartokk who jumped from the ceiling was the first to meet Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. The glowing blade swung through the assassin. The second Bartokk fired its crossbow. Obi-Wan flung himself against the wall, narrowly avoiding instant death by two poison-tipped arrows that tore past him and embedded in the ceiling. Obi-Wan swung his lightsaber hard and defeated the second Bartokk.
By cutting down the two Bartokks, Obi-Wan’s battle had only begun. Since the aliens’ intelligence was distributed throughout their bodies, they continued to fight even after being cut in half. The two Bartokks had now been divided into four dismembered parts, all of which scurried across the corridor floor and prepared to attack again.
Obi-Wan reached up to the ceiling and retrieved the two poison-tipped arrows. With expert skill, he flung both arrows at two of the insectoid fragments that clawed at him from the floor. The arrows drove through the black-armored exoskeleton and the two body parts flinched sharply before dying.
As the two dismembered figures lurched forward on their hacked torsos and aimed their claws at Obi-Wan, he brought his lightsaber down again and again, reducing the assassins to an unsightly pile of parts too small to be threatening.
Obi-Wan stepped away from the bits that lay strewn across the corridor floor. Even though he was without fear, Obi-Wan could not help but feel some revulsion for the violence that had just taken place. He wondered how Qui-Gon would have handled the Bartokks, and if his Master would have been in any way disappointed with his use of the lightsaber against such fierce opponents.
Obi-Wan pushed the thoughts from his mind. No matter what anyone thought, the facts remained the same: Bama Vook’s son had been taken hostage by the Bartokks, and Obi-Wan was the young Talz’s only hope for rescue.
By Obi-Wan’s own calculation, only four Bartokks remained in this hive. If the two assassins in the corridor had managed to telepathically alert their comrades of his location before they died, he would still have to deal with four very angry Bartokks.
As he prepared to exit the corridor, Obi-Wan nearly tripped over one of the assassins’ weapons belts. By the glow of his lightsaber, he examined the items on the belt. He found a pistol that packed a stun net charge, and also a slaving collar control device.
Slaving collars were crude mechanisms used to make prisoners behave themselves. If a collar-wearing captive tried to escape, the collar would release an ugly shock. Obi-Wan knew that the control device could also be used to track a captive. If such a collar had been used on Chup-Chup, Obi-Wan now had the resource to locate him.
Obi-Wan switched on the device and aimed it up and down the corridor. According to the illuminated panel, a captive was indeed wearing a collar, and was located in the main cargo hold.
Obi-Wan pocketed the control device and secured the stun net pistol to his belt. He walked up the corridor and cautiously entered the main cargo hold. Although he could not immediately see Chup-Chup, the starships had at least located the Trade Federation droid starfighters.
Like cave-dwelling winged rodents, the droid starfighters dangled upside down from a rack secured to the ceiling. The fighters had their wings folded up in transport mode. Even at rest, the starfighters were a menacing sight to behold.
But the hold was hardly filled to capacity. A quick count confirmed there were only twenty-two droid starfighters in the hold. Because Obi-Wan had destroyed only three droid starfighters in combat, he wondered what had happened to the remaining twenty-five Federation fighters.
Searching for Chup-Chup, Obi-Wan edged around a corner to find the hold’s docking port. A magnetic field filled the rectangular port and separated the hold from outer space. Obi-Wan remembered his view of the freighter from outside and realized the three droid starfighters must have been deployed through this transparent port.
A clanking sound caused Obi-Wan to turn to his left, and he quickly spied two Bartokks. Holding tools, they were working on what looked like the Neimoidian prototype hyperdrive engine. The engine was clamped in place to a worktable that was set near the hold’s docking port. Since Obi-Wan had never actually seen the prototype engine, he was not certain that this was indeed it. But from the engine’s size and design, he knew it was highly probable.
Seeing Obi-Wan out of the corners of their bulbous eyes, the two assassins turned their monstrous heads in his direction. They dropped their tools and reached for their crossbows.
Obi-Wan’s alert mind kicked into high gear, and everything appeared to slow down. His eyes scanned the hold and he saw an opportunity to eliminate this pair without touching his lightsaber. He was relieved, since he had no desire to repeat the battle in the corridor that had resulted in such carnage.
As the two Bartokks raised their weapons, Obi-Wan found a handgrip on the wall while he set his concentration on a switch near the worktable. The switch controlled the magnetic field that protected the hold from the vacuum of space. Obi-Wan grabbed hold of the grip on the wall, held his breath, and reached out with the Force to throw the switch.
The magnetic field dropped and a massive wind blasted through the port. The two Bartokks and several tools were torn out of the hold and into space. As soon as they were outside of the ship, Obi-Wan used the Force to throw the switch back into place. The magnetic field instantly raised, and the hold’s air pressure returned to normal.
Obi-Wan ran to examine the prototype engine that remained secured to the worktable. Fortunately, it was still intact.
A desperate pounding came from the starboard airlock on the other side of the cargo hold. The circular airlock hatch was built into the thick plastoid wall. Airlocks were used to help spacers reacclimate to different environments, but in the wrong hands, the pressurized cabin could also be a death chamber.
Obi-Wan ran to the airlock. He peered through a bubble-shaped transparisteel viewport that offered a distorted view of the pressurized cabin
’s interior.
He saw the Talz, weirdly magnified through the bubble-shaped viewport. The hair-covered alien appeared taller than Obi-Wan had envisioned. The young creature was gasping for air and hammering his hairy fists against the walls.
To the left of the airlock, a gauge indicated the sealed chamber was depressurizing. Obi-Wan knew he would have to do something fast or the Talz would die. However, he was reluctant to use any of his weapons to open the airlock because the sudden pressure change might accidentally kill the child.
There were ten buttons on the airlock control board. Obi-Wan was unfamiliar with the functions of each button, but he knew a button was the best option to open the airlock. Although he never would have admitted it to anyone, he wished he had Trinkatta’s technical expertise.
Trinkatta! As soon as he thought of the Kloodavian, Obi-Wan remembered how he had deactivated the Bartokk stun net by pressing two yellow buttons on the remote control device. That device also had ten buttons.
There were two yellow buttons on the airlock control board. Obi-Wan pressed them both at the same time.
Obi-Wan’s hunch was correct. The airlock repressurized and the Talz appeared to breathe more easily. Then the hatch opened with a hissing sound, and the Talz stepped out of the cabin. He had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the hatch’s frame.
Obi-Wan looked up at the hairy alien.
Chup-Chup was 2.2 meters tall.
At the sight of the hulking child, Obi-Wan nearly fell over backward. “You’re taller than your father!” Obi-Wan exclaimed.
Chup-Chup shrugged and pointed to his slaving collar. Using the device he’d retrieved from one of the Bartokks, Obi-Wan pressed two yellow buttons and the slaving collar fell from the Talz’s neck. Chup-Chup pointed again to his furry throat, and Obi-Wan realized the Talz was without a vocabulator.
Remembering the vocabulator he had taken from the Bartokk on Esseles, Obi-Wan drew the device from his pocket and handed it to Chup-Chup.
Chup-Chup held the vocabulator in front of his mouth. “Thanks for rescuing me, mister,” he said in a high voice. “Are you a real Jedi Knight?” “Practically,” Obi-Wan replied, eyeing the Talz with some suspicion. “What happened to you? Did the pressure in the airlock make you grow?”
The Talz giggled. “No, I’m just tall for my age. Did my father come with you?”
“No, he…” Obi-Wan stopped short, reluctant to cause any more worry for Chup-Chup. “Your father is still on Esseles, and he’s looking forward to seeing you. He let me pilot his Headhunter here.”
“He let you fly the Z-95?!” Chup-Chup asked with disbelief. “Wow. He must like you a lot.”
“Chup-Chup, please listen,” Obi-Wan said, his voice suddenly very serious. “There are two Bartokk assassins still at large on this freighter, so we should leave this ship as soon as possible.” Obi-Wan glanced at the Neimoidian prototype hyperdrive engine on the worktable, then back at the tall Talz. “I want to examine this prototype engine. Do you think you can carry it to the Headhunter?”
“Sure!” Chup-Chup answered. “I’m good at lifting stuff.”
The Talz unclamped the cumbersome engine from the table and tucked it under one of his thick arms. Carrying the engine, Chup-Chup followed Obi-Wan through the cargo hold and past the twenty-two droid starfighters.
“I was under the impression this freighter was carrying fifty droid starfighters when it left Esseles,” Obi-Wan commented.
“It was carrying fifty starfighters,” Chup-Chup continued. “But when the freighter entered space, another Bartokk freighter was waiting for us. The Bartokks transferred twenty-five starfighters to the second freighter.”
“Transferred?” Obi-Wan said. “Of course! That would have been the Bartokks’ backup plan in case they were pursued from Esseles.” Then Obi-Wan remembered the second blip that had appeared on his scanner grid when he left Esseles’ orbit. He realized that particular blip must have been another Bartokk freighter. Although Obi-Wan had little respect for the Bartokks, he couldn’t help but acknowledge their cunning.
Obi-Wan led the Talz out of the cargo hold and into the long, dark corridor. He returned to the octagonal docking port tube and helped Chup-Chup board the Headhunter.
“Stay in the ship and wait for me,” Obi-Wan ordered. “I still have to find out this freighter’s destination.”
Obi-Wan left the docking port tube and walked up the corridor to the control room. Numerous lights glowed and winked in the dim, filthy chamber. Thick cables dangled like mechanical vines from the ceiling, and a thin layer of moss covered some of the instruments. There was not any sign of the surviving Bartokk crew. The freighter appeared to be running on autopilot.
Without warning, a Bartokk dropped down from the ceiling.
The Bartokk carried four sharp gutting knives. He came at Obi-Wan with immense speed and fury. Obi-Wan knew that if he hesitated, the Bartokk would open him up like a ripe blumfruit.
Obi-Wan drew the stun net pistol and fired. The net shot through the air and snagged on the assassin, slamming him back against a moldy console. The duracord webbing glowed and stunned the Bartokk, and he fell to the control room floor.
The battered Bartokk breathed in a harsh rasp. His insectoid body slumped against the console that housed the freighter’s nav computer. Obi-Wan noticed that the Bartokk wore a vocabulator.
“What were you planning to do with the starfighters?” Obi-Wan asked.
The Bartokk remained silent.
“What’s your destination?” Obi-Wan asked, using the Force to apply pressure to the assassin.
The Bartokk squirmed. Obi-Wan concentrated hard, trying to search the alien’s mind. But the Bartokk’s intelligence was maddeningly intricate, with trillions of nerve cells thinking of nothing but murder.
“Corulag,” gasped the Bartokk before he realized he had actually spoken out loud.
“What?” Obi-Wan said. “Who were you planning to kill on Corulag?”
“You will not defeat the Bartokks,” the angry assassin hissed through his mandibles. “Our assignment will be carried out no matter what!”
“I already know about the transferred droid starfighters,” Obi-Wan revealed. “I’ll make sure the freighter never reaches its destination. Just wait until I turn you over to the authorities.”
“I would sooner die than remain your hostage!” the Bartokk sneered. Suddenly, he twisted his neck sharply and bit down. His mandible contained a quick-acting toxin. Before Obi-Wan could intervene, the Bartokk was dead.
Obi-Wan quickly consulted the nav computer. The records showed the freighter was indeed set on a course for the planet Corulag. Obi-Wan realized the Bartokk freighter probably contained too many booby traps to reprogram a new destination or allow its return to Esseles. To prevent the freighter and its cargo of droid starfighters from reaching Corulag, Obi-Wan decided to destroy the entire ship.
Obi-Wan removed the proton grenade from his weapons belt. It was the same grenade the Bartokks had planted under the seat in the Headhunter. Obi-Wan knew that if the grenade were set in the control room, it would cause a chain reaction and blow up the freighter.
He set the timer for a two-minute countdown, then twisted the grenade’s arming mechanism. This action primed the grenade’s battery to deliver a small electrical charge to the proton core. Obi-Wan pressed the activation plunger to start the timer, then secured the grenade under the nav computer.
Obi-Wan ran from the control room and raced down the dark corridor. His feet pounded on the metal floor and the rising steam whipped at his face. He was almost at the octagonal docking port when he saw a dark form slip out from the shadows.
It was the last Bartokk assassin. Each one of his four arms wielded a different weapon: a gutting knife, a spear, a crossbow loaded with two poison-tipped arrows, and a stun net. Unexpectedly, he dropped all the weapons and let them fall to the corridor floor. At first, Obi-Wan thought the Bartokk was offering his surrender, but something in the alien’s
inviting stance conveyed that he had something else in mind.
The Bartokk wanted to take Obi-Wan apart with his own bare claws.
The corridor was still thick with the smell of death from Obi-Wan’s earlier encounter with two Bartokks. He knew that it was not so easy to use a lightsaber against a Bartokk in such close quarters. He took a cautious step toward the docking port tube.
The Bartokk lashed out and tore through his opponent’s tunic. Obi-Wan decided to take his chances with the lightsaber. His weapon blazed and he whipped the blade back and forth at his relentless attacker. Soon, there were over a dozen dismembered insectoid body parts clawing at the Jedi apprentice.
Obi-Wan kicked at the severed limbs that continued to crawl after him into the docking port tube. Chup-Chup was already seated in the back of the Headhunter. Obi-Wan jumped into the front seat and dropped the canopy.
“Why didn’t you start the Headhunter’s engine?” Obi-Wan asked, trying to keep his voice calm. “The freighter’s going to explode in less than thirty seconds.”
“But you didn’t ask me to start the engine,” Chup-Chup whimpered. “Besides, I’m not old enough to fly a starship.”
“Then hang on!” Obi-Wan commanded. He punched the controls and the engines roared to life. The Headhunter broke off from the freighter and blasted away.
Within the Bartokk freighter, the proton grenade detonated just as the Headhunter began to fly off. Suddenly, the entire freighter erupted in a violent explosion that sent a small shock wave across space.
“Where to now?” Chup-Chup asked from behind Obi-Wan’s seat. “We’re not going after the other Bartokk freighter, are we?”
“Not yet,” Obi-Wan replied as he navigated the Headhunter back toward Esseles. “Our first stop is Trinkatta Starships to check on our friends. If there’s any chance of stopping that other freighter, we’ll need all the help we can get!”
Star Wars - Episode I Adventures 002 - The Bartokk Assassins Page 4