Jedi Quest 5: The School of Fear (звёздные войны)

by Jude Watson

  "You," he whispered angrily to Anakin, "check out those starfighters.

  You're going to have to give the rest of us some quick lessons."

  Anakin waited until the group had left with Rana. Then he hurried to the hangar. There wasn't much time. He didn't have a choice now. He couldn't let the mission go through. He had to disable those starfighters.

  He knew that now. He was nowhere near discovering what happened to Ferus or Gillam, and he was about to start a war. He was probably breaking every Jedi rule in the archives.

  The lerian starfighters were modifications of the Delta-6 Aethersprite that he was used to. Anakin knew every bolt on the engine. He thought for a minute. He needed to disable something that would show up as a warning light midflight but wouldn't put the ship in danger. He wanted to give the pilots plenty of time to turn around and land. It would have to be something that would immediately lead them to abort the mission.

  The laser cannon capacitors. Anakin swung open the maintenance panel.

  Small tools were snapped onto the panel within easy reach. He selected a small servo-driver and within minutes had disabled the capacitators.

  He started toward the next ship, wondering if he should alter the engine cooling system just enough to cause the engines to overheat slightly. That might add a little urgency to the decision to abort the mission…

  "What are you doing?"

  Marit's voice echoed across the hangar. Anakin paused and peered around the control panel.

  "Just a little tweaking."

  She walked forward and peered into the system controls. "Do you think I'm stupid, Anakin? You've neutralized the laser cannon capacitators. I've studied the blueprints of this engine. I came back to see if you needed help. I guess you don't, do you?" She turned and looked at him. Their faces were very close. He could see the speculation and the disappointment in her eyes. "Why?"

  "You don't think we should go on this mission, either," Anakin said.

  "I voted to go." Marit's voice was firm. "The group rules."

  "But I'm part of the group! The rule is that all decisions must be unanimous. Why isn't Rolai letting me vote?"

  Marit shifted from one foot to the other. "He says new members shouldn't have full voting privileges until they've completed a mission — "

  "And did you vote on that, or did Rolai just tell you?" Marit's silence told him what he needed to know. "So I'm supposed to risk my life without having a say in what we do? Do you think that's fair?"

  "Do you think it's fair to sabotage our engines to get what you want?"

  Marit's voice rose challengingly. "How could you do this? I trusted you! I brought you into the group!"

  Marit's brown eyes held anger and reproach. Anakin felt it was time for the truth. He owed her that.

  "I'm a Jedi," he said. "I'm not really a student at the Leadership School. I was sent there to investigate Gillam Tarturi's disappearance."

  "Gillam?" Marit was surprised.

  "Don't you want to know what happened to him?" Anakin asked. "And before we left, Ferus Olin disappeared. What if Rolai had something to do with it? What if he's funding the squad with ransom money? He's the one in charge of your treasury, and he's the security expert. He's the one with the connection to Rana Halion. What if she got him to kidnap Gillam? All the pieces fit. Why did he lie to you about this mission? Don't you want to get to the bottom of it?"

  Marit looked sad. "I wish you'd told me."

  "I'm telling you now."

  "You don't understand anything. Gillam — " Marit hesitated.

  "So tell me," Anakin said, exasperated. "What about Gillam?"

  "What about Gillam?" A mocking voice suddenly came from behind him.

  Anakin whirled around. Gillam Tarturi stood, leaning against the wing of a starfighter. He was the same height as Anakin, and their eyes met across the space. Anakin felt shock and dismay ripple through him.

  Anakin looked back at Marit. She nodded slowly.

  "Gillam is the squad," she said. "It was his idea. He formed it. He made up the bylaws. He recruited us. We wouldn't have done anything without him. We would have been a bunch of miserable outcasts."

  "You faked your disappearance," Anakin said to Gillam. "Why?"

  "I have my reasons," Gillam replied lightly.

  Marit spoke into her comlink. "We need you," she said crisply.

  "What's going on?" Anakin asked.

  For his answer, he heard the soft sound of her blaster leaving its holster. He could have stopped her easily, but he didn't. Marit pointed the blaster at him, a reluctant look on her face. Within seconds, the rest of the squad rushed into the hangar. Their blasters were drawn. They were all pointed at Anakin.

  "I'm sorry," Marit said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Marit's gaze was sorrowful. Rolai and Gillam looked hardened with purpose. But the others — Hurana, Tulah, and Ze — looked afraid. Why were they afraid? Anakin sensed that there was a conspiracy here. Gillam and Rolai were together, and they had roped in the rest of the reluctant squad.

  Except for Marit.

  There is something going on here that even Marit doesn't know.

  "He disabled the laser cannons on two of the starfighters," Marit told the others. "It's all right — I know how to fix it." She turned to Anakin.

  "We're going to have to restrain you until we're safely away."

  Anakin looked at Gillam. "Is that so, Gillam? Why don't you tell her what you really have in mind?"

  "Sorry, Marit," Gillam said easily. "That's not quite the plan."

  "What's the plan, Gillam?" Anakin asked.

  Marit gave Gillam a questioning look.

  "How would the kidnapping disgrace Senator Tarturi if he wasn't implicated in something terrible?" Gillam said to Marit.

  "And we get a very large bonus from Rana Halion, too," Rolai said.

  "Think about what it will do for the countermovement, Marit," Gillam said. "The Senator kidnaps his own son to throw suspicion on the lerians.

  And then something goes wrong, and his son dies — "

  "And it's his fault," Rolai chortled. "He sacrificed his own son so he could keep his power!"

  "I don't get it," Marit said.

  "I do," Anakin said. "They want to kill me." Shocked, Marit looked from Gillam to Rolai. "That can't be true."

  "Actually, we were going to hand you over to Rana Halion for that particular step," Gillam said. "But as long as you pushed the issue…" He flourished his blaster and smiled at Anakin.

  "But you're not Gillam — they'll figure that out," Marit said.

  "They have a plan to disguise the body somehow," Anakin said. "I'm sure Rana Halion can find ways. I'll be taken for Gillam. And Senator Tarturi will not only be disgraced among his own people, he'll have a war on his hands. He won't be able to investigate, even if he wants to."

  "Which he won't, because he won't care," Gillam said. "He'll just care about his Senatorial privileges being threatened."

  "It's a brilliant plan," Rolai said.

  Marit stared at the two of them. "You're both insane."

  Gillam shook his head sadly. "Poor Marit. You lost your nerve on Tierell. That's why we couldn't trust you."

  Marit looked at Tulah, Hurana, and Ze. "Are you going along with this?

  " The three of them looked uncomfortable.

  "Gillam says we must be warriors," Hurana said. "This is the only way.

  " "I just do the tech stuff," Ze said.

  "This has nothing to do with me," Tulah said.

  "Ah, one thing I should point out," Gillam said. "Because of the disappearance of another student, the school has gone into security code green. And that means that all passes have been cancelled. You've missed three of the hour check-ins."

  "I knew I should have extended the range on our comlinks," Ze muttered.

  "Which means we've been expelled," Hurana said.

  "Which means, dear friends, that we have nowhere to go," Gillam said.


  "It's a big galaxy out there. We only have one another. And that's a good thing. Together, we can be the best. We can have everything we want, if we just stick together. At first we did it because nobody wanted us. But now we can do it because we're the best. We belong together."

  Gillam's voice was low and compelling. Anakin saw the charisma and charm that had led these students to join him.

  "Maybe nobody wanted the others," Anakin said. "Or you convinced them that it was true. I don't know about that. But what about you? You're the son of a powerful Senator. Who didn't want you?"

  Gillam's face went white with sudden rage, and for the first time, Anakin could see that he was quite capable of killing him. "My father!" he shouted. Gillam regained control of himself with an effort. "And now he'll realize how wrong he was. Everyone will realize who underestimated my resolve. Well, Marit? Are you with us?"

  Marit turned to Anakin. "I have nowhere else to go," she said.

  "Marit, we're not doing anything wrong," Gillam said. "We're doing what we set out to do. We knew what the stakes were."

  Anakin held Marit's gaze. "Did you know the stakes would be murder?"

  "No one is asking you," Gillam snapped at Anakin. "You're already dead."

  "He's a Jedi," Marit said. "If you think your plan will be easy, think again."

  Gillam shrugged, coming closer to Anakin. "He has six blasters pointed at him. Even if you don't fire, I don't think we'll have a problem. I know the Jedi. I've seen them around the Senate all my life. They are basically servants of the Senators. Whatever power they had is gone now."

  Anger coursed through Anakin. He saw the privilege Gillam had been brought up with, and how it had corrupted him. He saw that Gillam had counted on the feelings of the others, how they had felt lost and alone in a world he knew and they didn't. He had taken their minds and hearts and fashioned them into a weapon aimed at his father. The squad wasn't about justice. It was about revenge.

  Anakin jumped up and kicked out with one foot in a spinning arc, booting the blaster from Gillam's hand while he held out a hand and, using the Force, tore Rolai's blaster from his grip. He landed on one leg and used the other to disarm Tulah with another well-aimed kick, grabbing the blaster from Ze's hand at the same time. He used his knee to dislodge the weapon from a surprised Hurana and then simply took Marit's from her hand.

  The entire series of attack moves took only seconds. The squad barely had time to blink.

  Now they stared at him, or down at their empty hands. There was a beat, a moment of silence and surprise. Anakin pulled out and ignited his lightsaber, holding it in a posture any Jedi would recognize as offensive.

  He was ready to strike. He did not want to hurt anyone. That was his first concern. But he had to stop the squad's mission.

  "Just don't move," he told them.

  Anakin sensed movement behind him and turned slightly. Rana Halion had taken a step inside the hangar. As soon as she saw the lightsaber, she hit a button on her cuff.

  Gillam smiled. "Looks like your luck has run out, Jedi."

  "Jedi don't need luck," Anakin said, just as the attack droids swarmed into the hangar.

  Blaster fire erupted from the droids, aimed at Anakin but scattered enough so that he feared for Marit and the others. The squad dropped, scrambling for their blasters. Anakin saw at once his problems. Gillam and Rolai had found blasters and were trying to aim at him as he moved. Fire from the droids was heavy. Marit had ducked behind a starfighter. He did not think he could count on help from her. She seemed dazed.

  He saw the smile of triumph on Gillam's face as he retrieved and aimed his blaster, and Anakin's anger returned. He reached out to the Force. He remembered the lessons he had learned from Soara Antana, the great Jedi Master. The Force comes from stillness, she had said. Find your still center, even in the midst of battle.

  He saw time unspool before him like a ribbon. He saw it freeze like ice on a river. He saw that he had infinite time to do everything he needed.

  With an outstretched hand he knocked the blaster from Gillam's grasp and sent it flying across the full space of the hangar. It hit the wall so hard it shattered. Gillam's smile disappeared.

  At the same time he was moving, diverting the droids' blaster fire from where Tulah and Hurana had taken cover, pushing Ze behind a durasteel container, and knocking out one attack droid with a thrust to its control panel.

  Suddenly the laser cannons from the starfighter on his right began to fire. Gillam had slipped inside the cockpit.

  Anakin did not lose his sense of frozen time. He was the master of time. He did not worry about the laser cannons any more than he'd worried about the attack droids. It all seemed so easy. He seemed to see the fire before it came, and he knew how to move to avoid it. His movements were like shimmersilk, so fluid it was as though he did not have muscles and bones, only will.

  Now his Master was here. He could feel that, too. But he did not need him.

  He spun in midair, taking out two battle droids while he leaped through the laser cannonfire straight at the cockpit of the starfighter.

  With one backward slash he took out the final droid. He had a flash of Gillam's shocked face as he cut through the windscreen with one slice. With one hand, he threw Gillam out of the pilot's seat and then dropped into it.

  He turned off the engines and disabled the laser cannons.

  Siri and Ferus stood, lightsabers drawn, guarding Rolai, Marit, Hurana, Tulah, and Ze. Obi-Wan had captured Rana Halion.

  Across the space, he looked at his Master. He waited for Obi-Wan to acknowledge him. The mission was over. He had been successful. He had found Gillam and thwarted an invasion.

  He waited, standing in the cockpit, looking down. He could feel the flush of triumph on his cheeks. Siri glanced at him, as did Ferus. He could see the astonishment on their faces. But his Master never looked up.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Never had Obi-Wan seen such a display of the Force from a Padawan.

  From the great Jedi Masters, yes. From Qui-Gon, near the end of his life.

  But from someone so young? Anakin's power astonished him. He had glimpsed it before, but now he had seen it unfurl, and it staggered him.

  He had not had a chance to move, to help. Anakin had been a blur. He had seemed to be everywhere at once. He had destroyed ten attack droids, disarmed his aggressors, and disabled two laser cannons without hesitation, with even a slight smile on his face.

  He could see that Siri and Ferus had been just as astonished at Anakin's deep connection to the Force, the way he had seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened, the way he was able to dodge fire before it occurred. Astonished, yes — and disturbed.

  Unease settled into Obi-Wan's bones, joining his disappointment and the anger he had tried to eliminate from his heart. To have a Padawan so gifted who was capable of being so wrong — it was his gift to be able to teach him. It was his burden as well.

  At first he could not even look at Anakin. He had to concentrate on the matter at hand.

  Rana Halion tried to glide away from him, but with a lifted lightsaber he stopped her. "How dare you!" she cried. "I assure you, I have no idea what this renegade band is doing here. My security team alerted me that there was a break-in and I arrived to see a battle." Her eyes swept the secret squad as if she had never seen them before.

  "And why did you send in droids to attack a Jedi?" Siri asked.

  "How ridiculous. I didn't know there was a Jedi here," Rana Halion said. "We sent in the droids because it is the usual procedure when there is a security breach."

  The girl called Marit raised her chin and fixed Rana with a contemptuous stare. "She is lying," she said. "About everything. I'm not a student anymore, but I can see I've learned my first real lesson today.

  Betrayals are the way the galaxy works." She looked at Anakin.

  He shook his head at her, as if to apologize. "I believed in what you believed," he said.

  "Then you we
re as foolish as I was," Marit said softly.

  "You'll take her word over mine?" Rana Halion huffed.

  "This is a matter for the Senate to sort out," Siri said. "These students will testify, no doubt. They've already been expelled, so they'll certainly be available."

  "Expelled? I don't think so," Gillam said. "I want to talk to my father!"

  "Your father might not want to talk to you after he discovers that you were trying to set him up for murder," Obi-Wan said.