by Джуд Уотсон
At first he couldn't distinguish anything. The snow was thick and blindingly white, dotted with boulders and crags. The sun bounced off the snow, hurting his eyes.
He had only seconds. Obi-Wan drew the Force around him, connecting him to everything he saw, from the craggy peaks and rocks to the fresh, dense snow.
He only saw a slight irregularity in the surface of the snow hundreds of meters below him.
Then he snapped his gaze back. It was a small cruiser. It was white, and it nestled in the snow, but he made out its outlines.
"Down there," Obi-Wan told Didi and Astri crisply as Qui-Gon's lightsaber tangled with the bounty hunter's whip. "Below that crag."
"I see it," Astri said.
"Go," Obi-Wan urged, already spinning to cover Qui-Gon's flank. "Don't wait for us!"
Didi and Astri stepped off the landing platform onto the snow. They sank into the snow up to their knees. They pushed through, making their way slowly across the side of the mountain. Drifts alternated with patches of ice, but they pushed on.
The bounty hunter redoubled her efforts, suddenly launching an offensive that sent Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan back against the edge of the landing platform. She had grabbed Astri's blaster and let loose a stream of fire from one hand while the other expertly plied her whip.
Their lightsabers were a blur as they fought off the frenzied attack. She pushed her advantage, and they stepped off the landing platform into the snow.
Now their footing was uneven. Obi-Wan expected an attack, but the bounty hunter changed her tactics. Instead of pressing on, she turned her back and raced to the other end of the landing platform.
She poised on the edge and pressed a device in her utility belt. A thin material skin shot out from her shoulders and thighs, creating a cradle around her. She leaped into the air and came down on the snow on her back. Then she dug her heels into the snow and Obi-Wan could see that there were now spikes protruding from her boot soles.
"She is prepared, as usual," Qui-Gon said.
She pushed herself off and flew down the mountain in the improvised sled, gaining speed as she went.
"She's going to come at Didi and Astri from below," Obi-Wan said. "She'll be between them and the transport."
"Exactly. We must reach them first."
Didi and Astri had made some progress. Though the footing was treacherous, desperation had fueled their speed. They had not seen the bounty hunter yet.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon hurried down the steep incline in their direction, carefully negotiating the ice and drifts. Obi-Wan glanced down the mountain at the bounty hunter. He could not imagine how she would manage to stop her descent. But as she slid, she unfurled her whip.
With an expert flick, the whip arced in the sky and looped around a craggy boulder. As the whip went taut, she dug her heels into the snow. Her treacherous slide was halted. She rolled to her side and sprang up, then detached the sled and began to race across the mountainside.
She made good progress as she moved across and up the face of the slope. Qui-Gon called out to Didi and Astri, alerting them to the fact that their enemy was now below them.
They hesitated, not knowing which way to go. Holding each other, they stood in the shadow of a crag. If they continued their descent, they would walk straight into the bounty hunter. The crag was too steep to climb.
Didi looked over at Qui-Gon helplessly.
"Stay there!" Qui-Gon shouted as he pushed through a drift. "We will come to you."
Obi-Wan wasn't worried. They were closer to Didi and Astri than the bounty hunter was. They would be able to reach them before she did, he had no doubt.
They were almost to the pair when the bounty hunter cracked her whip and sent it flying toward Astri. It lengthened farther than they had ever seen it go, growing longer and longer as it sailed through the air. It was not in laser mode, so it did not cut her. Instead, it whipped around her ankle. Didi desperately tried to hold on, but Astri was yanked off her feet and slid down the mountain, straight at the bounty hunter. At the same time, the bounty hunter reached down to her holster, withdrew a blaster, and shot Didi. He fell softly, silently, into the snow.
"She knows Astri has the data pad," Qui-Gon said tersely. "See to Didi. I have an idea."
Qui-Gon activated his lightsaber again. He kept it in front of him, sweeping the snow with each stride to cut a narrow path through it. The ice melted in seconds, and he was able to hit firm ground. He made fast progress down the mountain. But not fast enough.
Obi-Wan used the same technique to get to Didi. He fervently hoped he was still alive. He fell to his knees by Didi's side and reached for the emergency medpac on his belt. He saw the spreading stain of blood on Didi's tunic and ripped it open. He quickly poured bacta into the wound.
Didi's eyes fluttered open. Despair pooled in his deep brown gaze. "Astri," he murmured.
Obi-Wan turned. Qui-Gon had not yet reached the bounty hunter, but Astri had. She lay at their enemy's feet. The bounty hunter had one booted foot on her chest. She reached down for the data pad, which had slipped out of Astri's tunic. Astri held the data pad in a deathgrip. The bounty hunter set the whip to laser mode and it glowed red.
Qui-Gon was too far away to stop her. "Astri," Didi moaned.
Obi-Wan summoned the Force. He felt the power in his muscles as he leaped from Didi's side onto the crag. He scrambled to the top in seconds. Then he bent his knees and gathered power for the spring. He leaped high in the air, so high that the bounty hunter sensed his presence in the sky and looked up, confused. She only had time to raise her arm back before Obi-Wan, in the same maneuver he had used in the house, came straight at her, feet first. He hit both of her shoulders with a mighty blow that sent her backward onto the snow. Obi-Wan landed in the snow, his feet planted on either side of her body, his lightsaber raised.
"Enough," he said.
She lay rigid, but he felt a flicker of movement in her right hand. He saw the glint of a vibroblade. Moving only her fingers, she flicked it with expert aim toward Astri.
Obi-Wan's blow with the lightsaber was only a split second too late. It grazed the bounty hunter's fingers in a searing wound. At the same time he leaped backward, twisting in midair to try to catch the blade with his other hand. He used his Jedi reflexes to slow time down, allowing him to eye exactly where to grab it. The hilt thudded into his hand.
The bounty hunter stuck her wounded fingers in the snow for an instant. Her teeth sank into her lower lip.
The pain must have been terrible. She spoke for the first time. Her eyes blazed hatred at Obi-Wan. "You… will… pay."
Suddenly a lunge line shot out from her utility belt. It had a homing beacon to her cruiser, attaching itself to it and yanking her backward. Her body bounced across the ice. It must have been excruciatingly painful.
"Stay with them," Qui-Gon directed, and took off after her.
Obi-Wan watched as Qui-Gon gained on the bounty hunter. She scrambled into her cruiser. The engines fired and the loading ramp began to close as Qui-Gon gave a great leap and landed.
Horrified, Obi-Wan saw the flash of blaster fire. Qui-Gon staggered.
"Master!" Obi-Wan screamed.
Qui-Gon fell backward into the bowels of the ship. The ramp retracted. The ship rose in the air and shot away into the upper atmosphere.
Obi-Wan could hear as if for the first time the wind whispering along the surface of the snow. Astri raggedly breathed behind him. The echo of his own anguished cry reverberated off the mountain as he watched the ship disappear.
Had Qui-Gon been captured by the bounty hunter, or had he captured her? Was he mortally wounded? Was he alive — or dead?
The anguish of not knowing made Obi-Wan want to crash to his knees. But there were wounded he had to care for. Qui-Gon had told him to stay.
"Don't lose heart, Qui-Gon," he whispered. "I'll find you. Hold on."
He would find a way to bring back his Master.
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