The False Peace

by Jude Watson

  friend.

  "What? No..." The comlink crackled again. "... can't talk about it

  over a comlink. We must meet. This involves the highest level... great

  evil..."

  "I know, Tyro!" Obi-Wan hissed into the comlink, exasperated. "Sano

  Sauro!"

  ". only you can truly understand..." Tyro said through the static.

  "Tyro? I can't pick up what you're saying! I'll get back to you as

  soon as I can." Obi-Wan shut off the transmission. He saw a schematic

  blueprint on the side of the tunnel, and he hurried over to examine it.

  The blueprint was fashioned by raised laser lines that responded to

  touch. When Obi-Wan touched one part of the blueprint, it lit up in far

  more detail.

  Just like the blueprint at the factory on Falleen.

  They had used the same system to map the tunnels. Did that mean that

  the tunnels in the factory on Falleen corresponded to the Senate tunnels?

  Obi-Wan touched the area he was standing in. The tunnel design

  appeared, with all the different branches.

  He didn't recognize the design. It was different from the one on

  Falleen. But that didn't mean that another quadrant wouldn't match. If he

  found the quadrant that they'd built on Falleen, he'd know which way Zan

  Arbor and Omega were going.

  Which meant he would have to flash through each quadrant of the Senate

  water system until he found the one that matched. Obi-Wan scanned the menu.

  There were five hundred and seventy-two separately designated quadrants to

  the system. It would take too long for him to stand here and try to match

  them.

  Obi-Wan studied the tunnel around him in frustration. The answer was

  here. Somewhere. There was something he wasn't seeing.

  He closed his eyes, remembering the tunnel on Falleen. Had there been

  a clue there that he had missed?

  In his mind, he saw the tunnel he was standing in and matched it to

  the one on Falleen. Something was different, he knew. What? Suddenly, he

  realized something crucial.

  Vents.

  The Senate water tunnel had no vents. Of course not. It had valves to

  regulate water flow.

  The tunnel on Falleen had vents.

  Obi-Wan bent forward and accessed the grid again. He saw on the menu

  that the air and water tunnels were stacked on top of one another. There

  were several linking passageways for workers to get from one to the other.

  He pressed the key for the air tunnel quadrant nearest to where he was

  standing.

  It was the same grid.

  Obi-Wan realized then what he should have realized on Falleen. Zan

  Arbor had attempted to transmit the Zone through water to a large

  population. She had failed.

  TRACK A EXPERIMENT VOIDED.

  TRACK B EXPERIMENT BEGUN.

  Track A had been transmission through water. It had failed. Four

  deaths were the result.

  Track B had been transmission through air. Obi-Wan's conclusions

  thudded through his brain with sickening logic.

  Zan Arbor and Omega knew he was expecting them to attack through

  water.

  They had wanted the Senate water tunnels to be shut down.

  It was their way in. And while the water tunnels were being searched,

  they would release the Zone into the air.

  He studied the blueprint again, then whipped out his comlink as he

  ran. He could not get through. He was too deep in the system now.

  He ran along the tunnel until he saw the light indicating a pass-

  through to the air tunnels. He accessed the door and rushed through, then

  jumped on a constantly moving platform that took him up to the air

  transport systems. Obi-Wan raced through a circular door into the air

  tunnel.

  He remembered the blueprint perfectly. If he took a left turn, then a

  right, he would arrive in the main air tunnel. The one that went to the

  main Senate chamber.

  He ran down the tunnel, his footsteps making no noise. Before long he

  heard a faint humming noise.

  A speeder bike.

  He took the next turn and saw them. Zan Arbor and Omega, traveling at

  low speed through the tunnel.

  He accessed the Force and leaped, throwing himself through the air,

  straight at the speeder.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Obi-Wan hit the end of the vehicle and grabbed on to the edge of the

  backseat. The speeder lurched with the impact and collided with the wall in

  a shower of sparks.

  In the pilot seat, Granta Omega took a backward glance and saw him. A

  look of rage transfixed his features into a snarling mask.

  "Grants, watch out!" Zan Arbor screamed.

  The tunnel curved and now the speeder was heading straight for the

  wall. Omega jerked the controls. The rear fishtailed wildly, tossing Obi-

  Wan back and forth. He scrambled toward the third seat in the rear.

  Zan Arbor took out a blaster. Obi-Wan activated his lightsaber while

  she lifted it to aim. He swung, deflecting fire, but it was hard to hold on

  with one hand and he knew he wouldn't be able to do it for long.

  "Faster!" she shouted to Omega. With the other hand, she took another

  blaster out of her belt. "Just drive!"

  To his surprise, she did not aim the second blaster at him. Omega

  piloted the speeder bike closer to the walls of the tunnel, and she took

  aim at the side.

  At the vent.

  Obi-Wan realized she wasn't holding an ordinary blaster. It was likely

  packed with pellets. She was going to shoot into the vent. And right about

  now, if he remembered the blueprints correctly, they were on a direct line

  to the main Senate chamber.

  "Get closer!" Zan Arbor screamed. She half-stood, half-crouched on the

  seat, lining up her shot, ignoring Obi-Wan for now. She would only get one

  chance at the vent.

  But Obi-Wan was well aware that Omega had two problems: He had to get

  close enough for Zan Arbor to shoot, but he had to keep Obi-Wan off balance

  enough to prevent him from reaching Zan Arbor.

  The Force hummed in the tunnel and around him. Time slowed down. Only

  a second remained until Zan Arbor would take her shot, but that second

  broke down into smaller pieces of time that Obi-Wan could use.

  He could see the vent approaching. He waited until he knew Omega would

  have to get the speeder closer to the wall. At the moment Omega made the

  adjustment, Obi-Wan threw himself forward, knocking Zan Arbor off position.

  With a swift, precise kick, Obi-Wan dislodged the blaster from her hand. It

  flew out, bouncing against the tunnel wall.

  Zan Arbor crouched in the bottom of the speeder, her face contorted in

  a scream.

  "Do it now!" she screamed at Omega.

  Of course. Omega would have a blaster, too. He always had a backup.

  Omega threw the speeder into reverse. It was careening now, almost out

  of control, but his arm was steady as he aimed the blaster at the vent.

  Again, time moved for Obi-Wan just as he wanted it to move, with

  spaces in between the seconds for him to exploit. He reached over and

  pushed the speed lever forward. The speeder went into maximum velocity in

  resverse.

  Obi-Wan was prepar
ed, but Omega and Zan Arbor were thrown forward with

  the lurch of speed. Omega let go of the blaster. Obi-Wan reached up and

  snatched it out of the air, then tucked it into his utility belt.

  Omega tried to push the engines into forward again, but the speeder

  finally protested and stalled. The engine cut out and the speeder spun

  crazily, then bounced on the bottom of the tunnel and slammed against the

  wall.

  Omega was already jumping out as the speeder bike died. Obi-Wan leaped

  after him, but found himself suddenly contending with a dozen miniature

  seeker droids hammering blaster fire at him. Omega had released them from a

  compartment on the speeder even as it came to its final stop.

  The first dozen were joined by another dozen. Then another. And, Obi-

  Wan saw in dismay, another. The blaster fire kept Obi-Wan moving, but he

  could not get anywhere. He had to leap and defend himself against the

  blaster fire while taking down the elusive droids, who were now between him

  and the two criminals.

  Zan Arbor ran toward Omega. "Let's move on to the exit plan."

  Omega stood, watching Obi-Wan contend with the droids. Obi-Wan heard

  him clearly. "I want to see him die. Not even a Jedi can escape this many

  seekers."

  "Don't be a fool. Come on! Security will be all over us in another

  minute!" Zan Arbor started to run.

  Taking a last look at Obi-Wan, Omega grinned. "Have fun."

  Then he turned and started after Zan Arbor. Obi-Wan leaped into the

  air, barely missing blaster crossfire. The tunnel was filling with smoke

  from the heavy fire. He began to regret charging off alone to hunt Omega.

  Maybe he'd been wrong not to wait for backup...

  Jedi do not second-guess.

  Especially when they are in a tunnel with thirty-three flying, firing

  droids.

  Three droids in one blow. But there were thirty others, and it would

  take time.

  Instead of running forward, Obi-Wan retreated. He dashed back to the

  speeder and threw himself underneath it. His face was directly against the

  hot metal, his arms and legs squeezed inside so that the blasters could get

  not direct shots at him.

  He heard the blaster fire rake the speeder, front to back, searching

  for his position. He waited until he heard the distinctive sound of several

  rounds of blaster fire penetrate the fuel tank.

  He had enough time, he had more than enough time, thanks to the Force,

  but Obi-Wan felt the hair on the back of his neck singe as he flew through

  the air, escaping the exploding speeder bike. The fireball took out twenty-

  eight seeker droids at once. Obi-Wan slashed the remaining two as he moved

  through the air, propelled by the Force and the extremely hot air thrown

  off by the explosion.

  He landed on his feet - singed, but fine.

  He started to run, whipping out his comlink as he moved. He knew where

  they were going. The Senate landing platform.

  He tried his comlink, but the heat of the blast had fused it. Obi-Wan

  tossed it away as he doubled his speed. The landing platform must be ahead.

  Omega and Zan Arbor had mapped out a plan that would get them inside the

  air tunnel and then out of the Senate as fast as possible.

  Obi-Wan saw an air vent dangling off its hinges. He rushed forward and

  peered inside. Only a few meters of crawl space separated him from the vast

  landing platform. He crawled through.

  The landing platform was kilometers long, big enough to park space

  freighters in, though most often it was used for the smaller transports of

  the Senators and important guests. Vehicles were parked in orderly rows.

  There was no sign of Omega or Zan Arbor. They were undoubtedly racing

  toward their transport and he could waste an hour looking for them and

  never find them. Omega would escape again. He had prevented the Zone from

  penetrating the Senate, and had stopped the assassination of Palpatine - he

  hoped. Omega was leaving in defeat.

  None of that mattered. Defeat or not, Omega was still escaping.

  Obi-Wan gathered the Force around him. He had never needed it more. To

  his surprise, he felt it move like a gathering storm, already powerful but

  hinting at the greater strength to come.

  Anakin.

  His apprentice moved out from an aisle of transports, racing toward

  him. Siri was by his side. "Palpatine?" he asked Anakin.

  "I left him with Ferus," Anakin replied. "Omega?"

  "Here somewhere." Anakin had left Palpatine? He'd given him a direct

  order! Of course, Ferus must have arrived, and the situation had changed.

  But he had wanted Anakin to stay with the Chancellor because if he had

  missed something, Anakin would still have a chance to foil an attack.

  "We tracked you through the tunnel," Siri said.

  Anakin was turning, his eyes raking the platform. Obi-Wan felt the

  Force build. He reached out, looking at the platform, searching for the

  dark Force that was here, concealed, trying to hide.

  "There." Anakin pointed. "Third aisle over. Thirty-seven transports

  down."

  They raced down a parallel aisle, hoping to surprise them.

  They stealthily moved around a gleaming transport. Across the aisle,

  Omega and Zan Arbor were already seated in the cockpit of a sleek space

  cruiser. Omega was quickly instituting takeoff procedures.

  No time for delay or to make a plan. The Jedi charged. Anakin accessed

  the Force and leaped straight onto the windscreen, startling Zan Arbor, who

  screamed. Obi-Wan landed on the roof and leaned over. He withdrew his

  lightsaber, ready to cut a hole in the door panel below. Siri leaped up

  next to him.

  "It really gets tiresome to be continually underestimated."

  The voice was Omega's. He was transmitting outside the cockpit.

  Grimly, Obi-Wan started to cut.

  "Do you really think you have foiled my plans, simply by showing up

  here? If you cut through that door panel, Obi-Wan, you will kill thousands

  of Senators."

  Obi-Wan continued to cut.

  "Obi-Wan," Siri whispered.

  "That's right, Master Tachi. This will be a day the Senate will long

  remember. A bloodbath."

  "He has a transmitting device," Anakin said from his position outside

  the windscreen.

  Obi-Wan stopped his effort.

  "Ah, better. Let me explain. I have programmed hundreds of seeker

  droids with the vital information to key Senators as well as to Palpatine.

  All I have to do is push the button."

  Obi-Wan felt rage build up inside him. He could not, would not let

  Omega blackmail him into letting him escape. But he had no doubt that Omega

  was telling the truth. It was similar to the way he had orchestrated the

  death of Jedi Master Yaddle.

  He felt the Force move, a boiling mass that caused him and Siri to

  jump to their feet on top of the cruiser. Anakin was up, hanging in midair

  for the second it took him to slash through the windscreen directly in

  front of a shocked Omega. He jumped directly on top of the melted material,

  material that must have been too hot to stand on. Zan Arbor screamed as the

  melted windscreen fell into her lap.
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  Obi-Wan had never seen such speed. Even he could not fully track his

  apprentice's movement. Balancing on the lip of the cruiser, faster than

  sight, Anakin reached in and grabbed the transmitter from Omega's clutches.

  "Whoops, no more button," he hissed at Omega.

  With a cry of rage, Omega triggered the powerful engines. The cruiser

  shot up so fast all the Jedi slipped off. They fell to the ground as Omega

  took off in a burst of speed, clipping a cruiser's wing as he went and

  knocking over a row of swoops and disrupting traffic in the nearest sky

  lanes.

  Obi-Wan watched from the floor, momentarily stunned.

  Anakin looked at the transmitter in his hand.

  "He lied," he said. "The transmitter is locked in position. He has

  already programmed the droids."

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  "The fastest way back to the Senate chamber is though the tunnels,"

  Siri said.

  "We don't know the way," Anakin said.

  "If I know Ferus, he does," Siri said crisply.