Jedi Quest: Path to Truth

by Jude Watson

  giant turbines began to spin faster.

  Obi-Wan guessed her strategy a few seconds too late. He just had time

  to grab the controls when the turbines roared to life at three times their

  normal speed. A gust of wind picked the craft up like a feather and hurled

  it toward the shaft.

  Fighting for control, Obi-Wan struggled to hold the ship steady. It

  crashed against one wall of the shaft, then smashed against the other side.

  He quickly opened the side wings slightly for more control. It wasn't easy

  to prevent the ship from crashing and burning in the narrow shaft, but he

  managed to keep it heading down the middle as it lurched.

  The turning propellers ahead reminded him that he could be cut to

  bits. Obi-Wan drew on the Force, concentrating all his will on the task

  ahead. Time seemed to slow as he gauged his own speed and the speed of the

  powerful rotors. At the last possible second, he activated the wings fully

  and flipped sideways. As the ship slipped through the rotors, one of them

  clipped a wing. Spiraling crazily, the ship shot out into space.

  Obi-Wan fought for control. He activated the third wing to take up

  some of the control he had lost. The ship slowly steadied beneath his

  hands. He cut back the engines and spun the craft around. Should he follow

  the ship, or attempt another landing inside the exhaust shaft? He asked

  himself the question, but he knew the ship did not have the control

  necessary to navigate that shaft again.

  He couldn't leave Anakin to be captured by Siri and Krayn. He could

  not allow his Padawan to become a slave once again.

  Then as he watched, Krayn's ship blasted into hyperspace in a shower

  of light energy.

  He could not follow. His Padawan was gone.

  CHAPTER 10

  Everything had happened so fast. It was rare for Anakin to be caught

  by surprise. One moment he had been furious at Obi-Wan but ready to board

  the ship, and the next moment his Master was being blasted down the shaft.

  His Jedi reflexes still needed honing. Siri-Zora had completely turned the

  situation around while he was still absorbing what was happening.

  Krayn appeared on the catwalk above.

  Krayn was humanoid, but had the size and heft of a natural formation,

  a boulder, a tree. His body seemed carved out of rock. His shaved head

  glinted in the dim light. As he drew closer Anakin could see various items

  hanging from the double utility belt he had slung around his waist. They

  swung with the motion of his walk. He clutched a vibro-ax in one meaty

  fist, and his small, glittering eyes swept the scene before him with

  shrewdness.

  A huge Wookiee stood by his side. Anakin realized this must be

  Rashtah. Ammunition belts crisscrossed his hairy body and a row of blasters

  were strapped to his waist. A jagged scar began under the hair of his scalp

  and traveled through his eye down to his lip. An eye patch covered that

  eye, hiding the damage. Rashtah waved his vibrosword at Siri and sent his

  own bellow of greeting.

  Siri reached over and powered down the turbines. Anakin wondered what

  his best move would be. There was no game plan for this particular

  situation. Would the Siri part of Zora cover for him, or would the

  heartless-seeming Zora give him up immediately? She had certainly acted

  ruthlessly in the case of Obi-Wan.

  His instincts flared. Stay silent. Let her speak.

  So Anakin said nothing as Krayn stomped toward them, the vibro-ax

  twirling like a child's toy in his other hand.

  "What's this? Have you caught our intruder?"

  "No. This is nobody, just a slave," Siri said. "I grabbed him as a

  shield just in case, but he wasn't needed. I'm afraid our intruders took

  the exhaust tunnel back into space."

  "If they made it." Krayn's dark eyes glittered. "I gave the order to

  jump to hyperspace. If they were in the shaft when that happened, they're

  space dust."

  The Wookiee gave a sound of amusement.

  "That would be a bonus," Siri said. Her eyes glinted with the same

  cruelty as Krayn's.

  She hates Obi-Wan, Anakin realized.

  Krayn stuck his head closer to the exhaust shaft. "We'll have to

  figure out a way to block this from airships. Don't want to be surprised

  again. Heads will roll about this one."

  While Krayn's back was to them and Rashtah was distracted, Siri

  reached over and deftly removed Anakin's lightsaber from his utility belt.

  Again, she had been quicker than his perception. She did it so quickly and

  smoothly that he barely registered that he had been disarmed. She thrust

  the lightsaber inside her tunic in the same smooth motion.

  Krayn turned and gave his full attention to Anakin. Anakin met his

  gaze squarely. He could imagine that Krayn's gaze had the power to terrify,

  but it did not work on him. He was curious and contemptuous, not scared.

  "What are you looking at, slave?" Krayn suddenly bellowed, his voice

  full of rage.

  Anakin realized too late that slaves did not look directly at their

  masters. He had never been particularly good at submissive poses, anyway.

  Siri lashed out with one leg, twisting it around his so that he was

  forced to stumble.

  "Show some respect," she hissed.

  Anakin gave her a look of pure loathing, but Krayn could not see it.

  He kept his eyes at mid-level when he turned back to Krayn.

  "He looks strong," Krayn said, stroking his neatly trimmed black

  beard. "Should fetch a good price on Nar Shaddaa."

  Now that his gaze was mid-level, Anakin realized that the objects

  dangling from Krayn's belt were talismans. They were objects Anakin didn't

  want to think about, for some of them resembled dried flesh and he could

  pick out bits of hair. There were jewels and crystals as well, and a small

  silver bell...

  The silver bell. Anakin's gaze was riveted on it. He knew it. He

  recognized it. It was the bell that Amee's mother had worn around her neck.

  Suddenly Krayn's meaty hand reached down and jangled some of the

  hanging items. The bell tinkled softly, and a strange pain seared Anakin's

  heart.

  "Admiring my kill trophies?" Krayn asked him in a low, cunning tone.

  "Or do you think you might snatch a jewel or two? Think again, slave. One

  of your fingers or your scalp will end up hanging alongside them!"

  He laughed, and Siri and Rashtah joined him. As Krayn shook with

  amusement, Anakin heard the tinkling of the bell. So Hala was dead. The

  sweet sound of the bell mingled with Krayn's harsh laughter until Anakin's

  vision blurred with rage. He could kill him, right here, right now. He

  would not need his light-saber. He could do it with his bare hands....

  "I'd better get the slaves ready for departure," Siri said. "We'll be

  at Nar Shaddaa soon. Come, slave."

  She prodded Anakin with the butt of her electrojabber. "Might as well

  enjoy the ship while you can. Soon you'll be working in the spice mines."

  "For the rest of your life," Krayn added, still laughing

  Anakin felt his feet move as Siri prodded him again, this time more

  sharply. Krayn had not frightened him. Siri had
not frightened him. The

  fact that he was alone had not frightened him.

  But soon he would be sold again into slavery. He knew firsthand how

  hard it was for a slave to escape. He had heard tales of the spice mines

  and the mortality rate of the workers there. He knew how dreams of escape

  would color his days. He knew how one gray day would follow one gray day,

  where he would not lift his head but keep it bowed to work. He knew that

  the dull drudgery of his days would fill his soul until the dreams of

  escape flattened into a haze of numbing routine.

  He thought he had faced his worst fear in the cave on Ilum. He had

  not. He realized now that he had just begun to taste it.

  CHAPTER 11

  Obi-Wan knew that it was useless for him to replay the situation, but

  he knew that if he had reacted faster, had jumped off the ship to confront

  Siri, he would not be in this position. His shock had slowed his reflexes.

  If Siri had been an ordinary enemy, he would not have been frozen in that

  pilot seat. If he had not remembered what she had been when she'd been his

  friend, he would not have imagined that she was capable of blasting him off

  the ship and taking Anakin as her captive.

  Obi-Wan paced back and forth on the bridge of the Colicoid ship. He

  knew he was lucky to be there at all. He doubted the Colicoids would have

  waited for him if their own ship had not been damaged.

  Captain Anf Dec had not bothered to hide the fact that he now

  considered the Jedi a nuisance. He did not even thank Obi-Wan for

  dismantling the weapons system of Krayn's ship, but indicated that it was

  the least the Jedi could do. Obi-Wan sensed that the captain was nervous

  about the reaction of his superiors to the mission. The Colicoids did not

  allow failure in their higher personnel.

  He knew it was fruitless to track a ship through hyperspace, but he

  had demanded that the Colicoid communication system search the galaxy for

  possible exit vectors for Krayn's ship. He had to pressure Anf Dec with the

  full weight of the Senate and the Jedi Council before the captain agreed.

  Of course the odds were stacked against him. A pirate ship did not

  register with host planets. If it needed repairs or supplies it went to a

  number of spaceports willing to make a few credits by catering to illegals,

  or simply captured a nearby unlucky vessel for parts or fuel.

  Maybe, Obi-Wan thought, that was why Krayn had attacked them in the

  first place. Perhaps it was a simple mistake. If that were the case, Krayn

  was in need of fuel or supplies, and could be heading to the nearest

  spaceport that would accommodate an illegal.

  So far the Colicoid search had turned up nothing.

  But did Krayn make mistakes? Obi-Wan kept circling back to that

  question. From everything he'd read and seen in Krayn's data file, the

  pirate had managed to survive and thrive when his fellow criminals died in

  strategic miscalculations, private battles, and ill-judged alliances. Krayn

  was a despicable life-form, but he had intelligence and cunning.

  Obi-Wan stopped pacing. He was allowing his worry over Anakin and

  disgust at himself to agitate him. When the body was agitated, the mind was

  as well

  He went still. He breathed. He found the place inside himself that

  knew second-guessing was a waste of time. He had done his best, made the

  calculations that he could. Any more recriminations would only slow him

  down.

  As he reached into himself, Qui-Gon's words floated to the surface.

  His Master had often said them when they had reached what appeared to be a

  dead end in a mission.

  Let's look at the who. That will lead us to the why.

  He found his gaze resting on Captain Anf Dec. The captain's determined

  unfriendliness did not bother him. But other things did. As Obi-Wan tapped

  his instincts, he also uncovered a memory. He recalled his unease with

  Captain Dec's behavior from the first meeting with him aboard ship. The

  captain did not seem a bit worried about the possibility of Krayn

  attacking. That was strange, considering the Colicoids had accepted Jedi

  help.

  Obi-Wan returned to the moment Krayn had first attacked the ship.

  There had been something in Anf Dec's manner that had bothered him then,

  too.

  Obi-Wan focused on the memory, calling up details. He and Anakin had

  rushed to the bridge. The captain had given a flurry of orders. He had

  given every indication of being close to panic. Colicoids were unemotional

  beings. They were trained and held to a standard of reserve. Captain Anf

  Dec's obvious fear was an unusual display.

  It wasn't his fear that troubled Obi-Wan, however. It was his outrage.

  That was what had flustered the captain - he had been caught by surprise.

  He seemed to take the attack personally.

  But why? The Colicoids had enlisted the Jedi because they knew Krayn's

  attack was a possibility.

  Or had they? Obi-Wan recalled that Chancellor Palpatine had been at

  the meeting. That was unusual. What it could indicate was that the

  Colicoids had been pressured to accept the Jedi. The Colicoids hadn't

  wanted them along not because they were wary of strangers, but because...

  Because...Why?

  He didn't have the answer. But when he found it, Obi-Wan knew that it

  would lead him to his Padawan.

  The Colicoid ship limped into one of the busy orbiting spaceports of

  Coruscant. Obi-Wan had already briefed Yoda and the Council by holographic

  transmission. He did not need to check in with the Temple. He took an air

  taxi to the Senate neighborhood below.

  There, he hurried down the walkway opposite the grand Senate complex.

  He turned a corner and smiled when he saw a cheerful caf© painted blue with

  yellow shutters. The sign read DIDI AND ASTRI'S CAFE..

  Didi and his daughter Astri had been good friends of Qui-Gon. Years

  ago Qui-Gon had volunteered to help Didi out of a "small difficulty" that

  had turned into a major mission involving the health and safety of an

  entire planet. Didi had survived a severe blaster wound and had gone on to

  become a successful caf© owner with his daughter. He no longer trafficked

  in stolen information, but he was still friends with the Jedi, and he kept

  his ears open.

  Obi-Wan pushed open the door, remembering his first sight of the caf©

  thirteen years before. It had been cluttered, crowded, and dirty. Didi had

  reigned over the chaotic caf© with good cheer and a paternal way with his

  customers, but he'd never managed to keep the tables very clean or the food

  very nourishing. It was Astri who had transformed the caf© into a thriving

  restaurant with good food. Their clientele had slowly changed. Smugglers

  and criminals still ate here, but now they were joined by Senators and

  diplomats.

  Obi-Wan stood for a moment, gazing over the heads of the customers to

  see if he could spot Didi or Astri. It had been nearly a year since he'd

  had the chance to visit them. They had both taken the news of Qui-Gon's

  death hard.

  A tall woman a little older than Obi-Wan stood by a table, chatting


  with two customers who wore the robes of Senatorial aides. The woman's

  springy dark hair spilled out from underneath a white cap, and her white

  apron was stained with various colors. As she motioned to the aides, she

  nearly knocked over the teapot. Despite his anxiety, Obi-Wan grinned. Astri

  hadn't changed.

  She looked up and her gaze met his. Astri's pretty face bloomed into a

  wide smile.

  "Obi-Wan!" She rushed toward him, knocking over a chair in her haste

  to greet him. She threw herself into his arms. Obi-Wan hugged her, feeling

  her curls brush his cheeks. He had once felt awkward at such displays of

  emotion. Not anymore. Qui-Gon had taught him by example. Obi-Wan remembered

  how surprised he'd been as a Padawan to see Qui-Gon enthusiastically hug

  Didi.

  She drew back. "Are you hungry? I have delicious stew today."

  He shook his head. "I need help."

  Her dancing eyes turned grave. "Let's find Didi."

  A small, rotund man was already heading for them, his soft brown eyes

  widened in pleasure. He, too, enveloped Obi-Wan in a huge hug, though he

  barely reached Obi-Wan's shoulders. "How my eyes delight me!" he burbled.

  "The brave and wise Obi-Wan Kenobi, my good friend to whom I owe my life

  and my daughter!"

  "Obi-Wan needs our help, Didi," Astri interrupted, for Didi would have

  gone on with flattery and sentiment.