by Watson, Jude
“Well, it’s not true,” Anakin said. “But we can make it worth your while, anyway. Do you know something?”
Auben was in the middle of her usual evasive shrug when an explosive blast rocked the walls. Sand spilled from the ceiling. Auben was almost knocked to the floor. Anakin and Ferus rose.
Behind the wall, Obi-Wan and the Jedi team ducked with the explosion, keeping their balance with difficulty.
Suddenly they heard the sound of pounding footsteps and the unmistakable clack clack of spider droids snapping into attack position.
Auben had been wrong. The Commerce Guild army had followed them.
Inside the chamber, Auben jumped up, blasters already gripped in her hands. “They’re coming through the main chamber. There’s only one other way out. Follow me.”
Obi-Wan waited until he saw Auben kick open a small opening in the wall. He leaned over to Tru and Darra. “Stay with Anakin and Ferus, whatever happens. We’ll take care of the droids and come find you.”
Darra and Tru nodded. Quickly, they slipped into the now empty chamber and followed the others.
Obi-Wan, Siri, and Soara charged back to the main chamber, prepared to meet an army.
Chapter Ten
Anakin wasn’t about to let Auben out of his sight. He had a feeling she was the key to finding Granta Omega. She knew so much about Dreshdae, and there was something in her eyes when they told her they were looking for a couple. His instincts told him she knew something.
Unfortunately, Ferus felt it, too.
Anakin could feel Ferus behind him every step of the way. They were moving close together in the narrow passage, Ferus’s breath on his neck.
As Auben pushed forward, he realized that they were now moving parallel to the great hall. Despite the thick blocks of stone, he could hear the clatter of droids and the steady, fast ping of blaster fire.
Auben moved more quickly as the noise of the blaster fire faded, no longer afraid of being detected. The passageway led downward in a gradual slope. The stones were damp and slippery.
“Where are we going?” Ferus asked.
“Just follow me,” Auben snapped. “And hurry!”
The passageway made a sudden turn, and they came to a partially demolished wall. Auben stepped over the stones and jumped into a chamber a little larger than the one they left.
“There’s a whole system of passageways that were once hidden,” she explained. “I guess the big monks used to spy on the rest.”
That sounded like standard Sith procedure to Anakin. Trust was not part of Sith doctrine. It seemed to Anakin to be a bleak way to live.
Auben led them down a bigger hallway. They went steadily downward, deeper and deeper into the complex. The walls began to weep with moisture. Anakin guessed they were now in the part of the monastery buried in the mountain.
They went through so many twists and turns that Anakin wondered if they’d have to use tracking devices to get out again. Even with his Jedi memory skills, he was beginning to feel disoriented.
At last, Auben paused. “What I’m about to show you isn’t visible from above.” She pushed open a rotted door.
Anakin followed. An ancient ship stood in the middle of a large space. He had never seen anything like it. Crude and clunky, it must have been state-of-the-art at one time. The afterburner tanks were huge.
“This was probably from before the sublight engine was perfected,” Anakin said, half to himself. Under normal circumstances, he would love to investigate the ancient technology of the ship.
Around it, various decaying parts of what looked like droids were littered, models so old he couldn’t identify them. He saw sheets and shards of durasteel and other metals on the floor and realized they had once been servodrivers, valves, and pumps, the hoses long decayed.
“It’s a service bay,” he said. “We must be near a landing hangar.”
“You got it,” Auben said. “Look.”
She led them through the open arch, into the darkness. Anakin stepped out and released a breath. The hangar was so vast, it ended in darkness. Service bay after service bay ran down each side of the hangar, waiting to repair the ships that no longer arrived. Hulking wrecks of ships still littered the floor, bits of metal that had once been droids, decayed tanks. Huge statues of terrifying creatures from many worlds marched on either side down the hangar. The statues had crumbled and cracked over the years. Some were headless, and the huge heads had fallen and crumbled into blocks of stone.
There was a smell of rust and rot, and the air seemed full of something thick, something like memory. Here the Sith had sent off their attack ships. Here their blood lust had pooled into technology and aggression. Here they had thought themselves invincible. Here disaster had overtaken them, their vengeance ending in defeat as their greed tore their order apart.
“It’s huge,” Ferus said. He walked forward a few steps. “You could dispatch an army from here.”
“Yeah, a lot of ships for a bunch of monks,” Auben said.
“The Sith were more than monks,” Anakin told her.
“So I’ve heard. The original evil guys, right?” Auben looked around. “Well, they’re all dead now.”
All except for one, Anakin thought. Maybe two. If Auben knew as much as they did about the Sith, she wouldn’t be so casual.
“So where’s the exit?” Ferus asked.
Auben waved vaguely toward the darkness. “The landing platform is completely blocked off. From what I can tell, it’s buried behind the mountain again, probably blasted with artillery a couple of thousand years ago or so. But you can get out through one of the hangar bays. It’s a tough climb down the mountain, but it’s better than tangling with the army.”
Anakin suddenly felt a surge, a feeling that seemed to rise up through the soles of his feet and blast out the ends of his hair. His stomach turned. His nerves screamed an alert. He could feel the dark side of the Force, lurking deeply in the vast hangar.
“Anakin,” Ferus said softly.
“I know.”
“Let’s…go back. Quietly.”
They backed up, stepping into the service bay again. The cool shadow calmed Anakin’s tripping heart.
Auben looked at both of them. “What is it?”
“Something worse than the army,” Anakin said. “And it’s coming this way.”
Chapter Eleven
Obi-Wan quickly assessed the attack. The first and second lines were made up of dwarf spider droids and homing spider droids, skittering toward the Jedi with laser tracking devices sending thin blue lines bisecting the space between them. Behind the droids were the army troops, locals dressed in full plastoid armor with battlefield helmets. The sophistication of the force was surprising. Obi-Wan wondered why the Commerce Guild needed such an awesome security operation.
The blaster fire from the spider droids was fast and accurate. They marched on spindly legs toward the Jedi. Obi-Wan and Siri moved forward, lightsabers moving like pinwheels of glowing light, cutting down the first droids who moved forward to engage them.
They had fought together so many times that they had learned how to merge their styles. Siri was the flash, Obi-Wan the strategist. He set her up, and she closed the deal. He maneuvered, she struck. They moved faster than the droids could track, and, with Soara entering from the other side, they mowed down the first two lines easily.
Soara was a renowned fighter, and Obi-Wan always appreciated a chance to watch her technique. She was a fluid force, moving like wind and water. Each stroke of her lightsaber was calculated, yet there seemed to be no calculation in her style. There was only movement. She took out five droids with one steady arc, knocking off their heads and sending the metal clanging to the stone floor.
Smoke filled the air and drifted to the vast space above. Deflected blaster bolts shot back at the startled officers, who found it hard to hold their line. They soon realized that they were not dealing with straggly thieves with a few blasters in their belts. They grabbed blaste
r rifles off the holsters strapped to their backs and fired. Two dozen of them advanced, while the third wave of droids moved in. Obi-Wan began to break into a sweat. He did not see the possibility of defeat, but the last thing he needed was to get clipped by blaster fire and have to deal with a wound while chasing Omega.
Then, from behind the officers, Ry-Gaul appeared out of the shadows. His silver-gray lightsaber hummed as he held it straight for a moment in front of him, gauging what he was up against. He moved quickly for his size, rather like Qui-Gon had, his grace surprising while his great strength never flagged.
The officers who turned to engage him couldn’t get away fast enough. The remaining squad took one look at three Jedi to the front and one to the rear and began to retreat, firing as they did so.
They let them go. The presence of Jedi on the planet couldn’t stay a secret for very long. Jedi did not take a life if they didn’t have to.
As soon as they were safe, Obi-Wan whipped out his comlink. He couldn’t reach Anakin. Siri tried as well, then shook her head.
“Too much interference here,” she said. “We’ll have to find them.”
Obi-Wan felt something then. A flicker that started on the edges of his consciousness and then grew, a dark shape inside him.
He spoke quietly despite the dread in his heart. “He’s here.”
The others turned to him. “Who?” Siri asked.
“The Sith. He’s here, in the monastery. Somewhere.”
Then he saw the knowledge flash in Siri’s face, Soara’s posture, Ry-Gaul’s wintry eyes.
They looked at each other for a moment, deep worry now ticking inside them.
A Sith was here, and their Padawans were by themselves.
Chapter Twelve
Anakin heard the flurry. It was like a flock of birds. But instead of the whisper of feathers, he heard the mechanical clatter of metal on stone.
“Stay here,” Ferus ordered Auben. “And hide!” he yelled over his shoulder.
Together Ferus and Anakin moved to the front of the service bay. They peered out into the vast hangar. At first they could see nothing. They could hear only the menacing clatter.
Then out of the gloom rose the battle droids. Line after line. Maybe thirty…forty?
“Wait,” Ferus said. “Those aren’t ordinary battle droids.”
“They have reinforced armor,” Anakin said, swallowing. “And the control center is lower…you can’t cut off their heads.”
“Too many,” Ferus said. “We have to retreat.”
“We can take them,” Anakin insisted.
“Anakin, this is no time to play hero. The two of us can’t do it by ourselves.”
“That’s your trouble, Ferus,” Anakin said coolly. “You always look at the odds.”
He stepped out into the darkness of the hangar. He saw the infrared tracking devices on the droids move over the space. They would find him. He had seconds.
Ferus moved out next to him. Of course if Anakin went out to meet the droids, Ferus would have to as well. He wouldn’t leave him. Anakin knew that.
“We should attack from above. They won’t be expecting that,” he said.
“How—”
“Follow me.”
Anakin gathered in the Force. He leaped onto the gigantic statue to his left, landing on its knee. He began to climb rapidly up, looking for handholds in the crumbling stone. He heard Ferus behind him.
He balanced on one shoulder of the huge statue, Ferus on another. They were high above the floor now, but even so, the ceiling of the hangar was lost in the darkness above them.
“Wait for the first wave, then drop,” Anakin said. “We can use our liquid cable launchers. The statues can be cover and—”
“I get it,” Ferus said.
They waited for the precise instant their attack would be most effective. It was seconds away when two dark shapes ran out from the hangar.
Darra and Tru.
“They think we’re down there,” Ferus said in horror.
Almost immediately, the droids locked onto Darra and Tru’s positions.
Ferus and Anakin took off in midair, the liquid cables holding them secure. They bounced off the statue and then swung out over the first line of droids. Their lightsabers moved in slashing circles. Due to the unexpected angle of attack, the droids were unable to lock onto their position at first. Sweeping out over the line, they managed to take out a dozen droids between them. Racing forward, Darra and Tru engaged the rest.
The eerie space and the darkness, the glint of metal, the pull of battle. Anakin saw nothing, felt nothing, but what was before him. He wasn’t a fool. He knew their chances of beating so many droids were slim to none. But he also knew that it was only in gestures like this that a true Jedi would be revealed. He Force-pushed a droid and it slammed into another. He slashed them both into one smoking pile.
Compared to him, Ferus’s hold on the Force was puny. Anakin reached out for it in the way he knew, reached for the Force in the stones and the dust and very air he breathed. The Force was part of him and around him. His vision was sharper now, his control perfect. He didn’t count the droids he dismantled. He didn’t hesitate or second-guess his choices. He just kept moving.
Even while he moved, he kept track of the Padawans behind him and next to him. In battle, his problems with Ferus went away. They were fellow Jedi, and they had to cover one another.
The droids split off in a different formation. Darra, who had swung wide to attack, was suddenly surrounded. She whirled in an arc, keeping most of them at bay. Tru, who was closest, Force-leaped to help her, his flexible arms reaching out to slash his way toward her. Darra buried her lightsaber in the lead droid’s control panel and it wheeled crazily astray, spraying blaster fire in random, dizzying circles. The stray fire caught Tru in mid-leap. He was wounded and fell, his lightsaber clattering to the floor. A droid stepped on it and kept going.
Anakin started to rush to help, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a flicker of movement. Something sinuous, flowing. Not the movement of a droid.
A cape. A dark-robed figure was moving quickly, keeping in the shadows, heading into the shadowy end of the hangar.
Granta Omega.
Tru was down. Darra had leaped to protect him. Now Ferus was moving in that direction.
The situation was covered. And Omega was getting away, no doubt heading for the same exit that Auben had told them about. This was his chance, his only chance. With a last glance at his friend, Anakin ran off into the darkness.
Chapter Thirteen
Ry-Gaul led the way. “When I couldn’t get in, I followed the wall back into the mountain. There’s an old landing hangar. It’s enormous—maybe a hundred service bays on each side. I got in through one of the end bays. That’s where they are.”
“The Padawans won’t know it’s a Sith,” Soara said. “Until…”
They all finished the sentence in their minds.
Until it’s too late.
Ry-Gaul led them steadily downward. Obi-Wan could feel the mountain as if it were pressing on his back. The closer they got, the more dread he felt.
They were deep in the monastery now. Even though it was in ruins, Obi-Wan could see how different it was from the Jedi Temple. Although the Sith monastery had the same goals—study and training—it was clear that this had been a place ruled by fear. The Temple had grand rooms, but it also had quiet spaces, light-filled classrooms, gardens. The Jedi believed that beauty was a part of the Force, and encouraged it. The sound of water, the play of light, the grace of a curving stairway—the Temple had been planned as a place of comfort as well as rigor.
The lines of this place were harsh. The walls were high, but narrowed slightly as they rose, in order to create a sense of being trapped. Angles were slightly off in a way that Obi-Wan realized was deliberate. The monastery was designed to intimidate, to keep beings off-balance. There were no openings to air or light. There was only cold gray stone, massive columns, ha
rd floors. Amid the weeping stones, Obi-Wan could still feel the fear that had ruled there, the many beings who had come to learn evil, the ones who had come naively, hoping for some kind of enlightenment, and had been trapped by their own desires.
He shuddered. It was as though he could feel each wasted life. Each terrible death.
The rest of the Jedi were silent. He knew they felt it, too.
At last Ry-Gaul stepped through a doorway into what had once been a service bay. They saw Auben cowering behind the wreck of an ancient vehicle. Wordlessly, she pointed to the curved arch that led to the hangar.
It was the silence that frightened them. They rushed out into the hangar.
It was littered with the remains of droids—so many that Obi-Wan staggered. Had the Padawans destroyed them all?
They could see that the battle had just ended seconds before. Tru lay on the ground. Ferus leaned over him, tending a wound with bacta. Darra whirled around and saw them, her lightsaber still activated. She shut it down as Ry-Gaul moved toward his wounded Padawan with his usual efficient speed.
Fear welled up in Obi-Wan.
Where is Anakin?
Darra saw the question in his eyes. “He ran that way—I think he saw something.” She pointed to the darkness at the end of the vast hangar.
Obi-Wan started to run. He would have to rely on the Force to find Anakin. He opened himself up to it, hoping it would reveal to him what he needed to know. Was his Padawan wounded? Had the worst happened?
He had no doubt what Anakin was chasing. No matter what Anakin thought, he was not equipped to deal with a Sith.
Obi-Wan ran into the darkness. He could not risk a light, not even his lightsaber. The darkness seemed to invade his lungs, making it hard for him to breathe. He scrambled over fallen blocks of stone, engine parts, the shreds of machines and the skeletons of vehicles. It was difficult to keep his footing but he made no sound.
He saw movement ahead and realized he had found Anakin. Relief flooded him, rendering him weak for a moment. He had been so afraid, and now he wondered momentarily at his fear. It seemed out of proportion to what he knew of Anakin’s skills. All he knew was that he had an overwhelming need to protect his Padawan from the Sith, to stand between Anakin and the dark side. Natural, he supposed.