Star Wars - Jedi Apprentice 06 - The Uncertain Path

by Jude Watson

  Or so they hoped.

  Tahl would not stay behind. He had argued with her and lost. If Qui-Gon saw who the culprit was, she could get the news back to Yoda.

  Qui-Gon might need to follow the thief. Tahl had argued that they should not rely on corn-links for communication. This was too important. And they needed to do everything as silently as possible. It was best not to tip off the thief.

  "All right," he finally agreed. "Just leave TooJay in your quarters."

  They had been waiting for five hours. Every so often they would stand and stretch each muscle in a Jedi exercise known as "stationary movement." That kept them awake and their muscles fluid.

  The lakeside was so still that it was no more than a flickering of a leaf that alerted Qui-Gon to the presence of another. Tahl had heard it; perhaps she had even heard a disturbance earlier, for her head was already turned toward the sound.

  Qui-Gon called on the Force to help him. He was dressed in a dark robe and blended in perfectly with the vegetation. He kept himself perfectly still.

  A figure emerged onto the beach from their left, not from the path he had anticipated. The figure was hooded, but Qui-Gon saw that it was a boy.Judging by his height, it was one of the older boys. The stance was familiar, too, Qui-Gon did not have to wait until the hood fell back to reveal the gleam of a white ponytail to know that it was Bruck.

  He leaned over and put his lips to Tahl's ear. He whispered Bruck's name, and she nodded.

  Bruck sat on the shore and took off his boots and outer cloak. Then he tied a waterproof parcel around his neck, lit a glow rod and waded into the lake. He took a deep breath and disappeared.

  "He's underwater," Qui-Gon said in a low tone to Tahl. "When he comes out, I'll follow him. You wait here. Don't move a muscle. He must not realize that he's being followed."

  "All right," Tahl agreed. "If you're not back in fifteen minutes, I'll get help."

  In minutes, Bruck resurfaced and swam with a strong stroke to shore. He walked out of the lake and pulled on his boots, then pulled the cloak around him. Instead of heading back to the turbolift, he chose an overgrown path. Qui-Gon knew it well. It led through the undergrowth toward the utility buildings that held floaters and hydrocrafts.

  Qui-Gon followed behind. Bruck could be heading for a meeting. He could be heading to where he'd stashed the other stolen objects. Either way, they would learn something important tonight.

  Bruck was being careful, but Qui-Gon was more so. He had more practice in moving silently than the boy did. He followed Bruck by sound rather than sight.

  The overhanging trees blocked out the surroundings as the path wound farther away from the lake. Soon they would be at the utility sheds. Would someone be there to meet Bruck? Qui-Gon picked up his pace slightly so that he could see the boy.

  "Tree root, two centimeters ahead." A well-known voice split the silence. "Leaf frond, three centimeters straight ahead at eye level!"

  TooJay! Qui-Gon stopped and went perfectly still. Bruck turned, his ponytail whipping around. He could not see Qui-Gon in the darkness. But he turned and ran.

  It was no use following him. He would most likely double back and return to the turbolift. He knew someone was out here.

  Disgusted, Qui-Gon turned back. Tahl was waiting on the path a few meters back. TooJay stood next to her.

  "Qui-Gon Jinn approaching," TooJay said pleasantly.

  Furiously, Tahl reached over and shut off TooJay's speaking mechanism. The droid waved its arms, but could not speak.

  "Qui-Gon, I'm sorry," Tahl said rapidly. "I didn't realize that TooJay was looking for me. As soon as I started down the path, she was behind me."

  "Why did you follow me?" Qui-Gon asked irritably.

  "Because someone was following you," Tahl explained. "They moved so quietly you might not have heard them. I was worried."

  "Someone from the Temple?" Qui-Gon asked. "Could you tell?"

  "I don't think so," Tahl said hesitantly. "Students and teachers, even workers, wear soft-soled boots. This person wore heavier boots. And the clothes had a whispery sound. Not like the sound of our cloaks or tunics. I think it's a man. The footfalls were heavy, and he brushed the icus leaves. He has to be close to your height."

  "So there is an intruder," Qui-Gon said. "That was who Bruck was going to meet."

  "Yes," Tahl agreed. "But not only that. He didn't hide in the bushes or try to track you through the trees. He knew the way. This intruder felt at home here. And he was not afraid."

  A sudden chill ran through Qui-Gon. This was the scariest news of all.

  When Obi-Wan woke the next morning, he was alone. Most of the Young had already headed aboveground. Cerasi probably hadn't wanted to wake him. He was sure that she'd been awake when he'd slipped back into his sleeping area near dawn.

  Cerasi had left him a plate of fruit and a muja muffin for breakfast. He ate, wondering when he'd get a chance to eat again. Each day was so busy. If he wasn't on duty with the Security Squad, he was trying, with Cerasi, to convince the Young that they needed to talk without anger.

  Suddenly Roenni burst into the space. He hadn't seen much of the quiet girl lately. She kept to herself.

  "Obi-Wan, they need you," she said breathlessly.

  "Who needs me?" he asked, standing up.

  "Everyone." Her eyes filled with tears.

  "Roenni, start from the beginning."

  "Nield has convinced Mawat that they must overthrow the vote of the council and demolish the Hall of Evidence on Glory Street," Roenni said. "He's gathered most of his squad and some of the Scavenger Young."

  Obi-Wan sighed. He would have to deal with this.

  "They have weapons," Roenni warned.

  "Where did they get them?" Obi-Wan asked sharply.

  "I don't know. But Wehutti is there with the Elders, and they have weapons, too."

  Dismay filled Obi-Wan. This is what he and Cerasi had feared, what they'd tried to avoid. Open conflict was in the streets of Zehava once more.

  He debated whether to try to find Cerasi. He could call her on the comlink. But he didn't have much time, and it was better that she find out about the conflict after it was over. He remembered how torn she'd been to see Wehutti and Nield at odds last time.

  Instead, he sent the emergency signal to his squad, along with the location of the site. He hoped they would arrive soon so he wouldn't have to face Nield alone. The sight of Obi-Wan would not calm Nield. Still he had to try.

  Grabbing his vibroblade, Obi-Wan headed aboveground.

  When he got to Glory Street, his worst fears were realized. There was a large stone fountain with dry jets in the center of the plaza. Nield and his forces stood at the end of the plaza, holding transparent shields and carrying blasters and vibroblades. Wehutti and the Elders were opposite, all wearing plastoid armor and carrying weapons. They blocked the entrance to the Hall of Evidence. Only the fountain stood between them. It was an explosion waiting to happen.

  Obi-Wan hurried toward them. "I order you in the name of the government of Melida/Daan to disarm!" he called as he ran. He saw members of his squad hurrying toward the spot, their weapons at the ready. He made a signal to them to stand fast. If they started shooting, the Elders and Nield's forces would as well.

  "You do not represent the government of Melida/Daan!" Nield shouted.

  Obi-Wan's squad gathered around him. They looked from Nield to Obi-Wan, and he saw confusion on their faces. Obviously, Nield had reached some of them when he'd called Obi-Wan an outsider. Even Deila looked uncertain.

  Ignoring their hesitation, Obi-Wan quickly gave orders for half the squad to surround the perimeter. At least he could prevent this battle from spilling out into the city core. He had to prevent any reinforcements from arriving. This confrontation could not escalate into war.

  He walked slowly toward the groups. He could feel the turbulence in the air, the hot emotion. He knew that everyone was just a hair away from using their weapons.

  "
Move aside, Wehutti," Nield said. "We won the war. Let us do our work."

  "We will not allow the desecration of our ancestors by a band of brats!" Wehutti thundered.

  "We will not allow murderers to be treated as the honored dead!" Nield shouted back. He raised his blaster rifle. "Now move!"

  Suddenly, the grate in the dry fountain opened, and Cerasi swung herself up and out. She began to run toward the middle of the two groups. "No!" she shouted as she ran. "This cannot happen!"

  "Cerasi!" With a cry, Obi-Wan sprang forward. At the same moment, shots rang out. In the confusion, Obi-Wan could not place where they came from.

  But they hit their mark. Cerasi's eyes widened as the blaster fire ripped into her chest. Slowly, she sank to her knees. Obi-Wan reached her just as she fell backward, into his arms.

  "Cerasi!" he cried.

  Her green eyes were glazed.

  "You'll be okay," he said frantically. "Can you hear me? You don't need luck. Cerasi!"

  He held up his palm. She tried to raise her hand, but it fell back. Her eyes unfocused.

  "No!" Obi-Wan screamed.

  He felt for her pulse with shaking fingers. There was no beat of her blood, not even a flutter.

  Agony ripped through him. He looked up at Nield and Wehutti. He couldn't form the words. It was as though he had forgotten how to speak. Tears ran down his face as the pain grew and expanded to every corner of his brain, his heart. It seemed unbearable. His body could not hold this much pain. It would simply break apart. Yet he knew it was only the beginning.

  The shock waves of Cerasi's death echoed through Zehava. She had been the symbol of peace. Her death became a symbol, too.

  But it was not a symbol of reconciliation. Each side took her death and fashioned it to fit their own ends. For the Elders, she was a symbol of the irresponsibility and recklessness of the Young. For the Young, her tragic death was a symbol of the inflexible hatred of the Elders. Each group blamed the other for her death.

  The Young and the Elders were more bitterly divided than ever. Though Wehutti and Nield were both in seclusion, their factions patrolled the streets, now openly armed. Each faction gathered more support every day. The rumor was that war was inevitable.

  Obi-Wan knew that Cerasi would hate what her death had become: a reason to fight. But he could not begin to struggle with meanings and symbols. He could only grieve.

  Nield had not attended Cerasi's funeral. Her ashes were now being stored in the Hall of Evidence where her parents' remains were.

  Obi-Wan was alone. The loss of Cerasi was with him constantly. As soon as he opened his eyes he felt it. It was as though his bones had left his body, leaving an empty, yawning space. He wandered through the city streets, wondering how people could continue to eat, shop, live, when Cerasi was gone.

  He relived the moment over and over. He asked himself why he hadn't run faster, or started toward her earlier, or anticipated that she would be there. Why couldn't he have caught the blaster fire?

  Then he would see the shock in her crystal eyes as the fire hit her, and he would want to scream and pound the walls. Rage kept him as occupied as grief.

  The loss of her presence hit him afresh from moment to moment. The knowledge that he'd never talk to her again made him ache. He missed his friend. He would always miss her. She had been a vivid presence in his life. They still had so much left to say to each other.

  So Obi-Wan kept on walking. He walked until he was exhausted, until he could barely see. Then he slept for as long as he could. As soon as he awoke, he began to walk again.

  Days passed. He did not know how to climb out of this grief. Then one day he found himself at the plaza where Glory Street ended and Cerasi had died. Someone had hung up a banner and stretched it between two trees.

  AVENGE CERASI CHOOSE WAR

  Something snapped in Obi-Wan. He ran at the banner and jumped up to grab it. The material was hard to tear, but he kept at it, muscles aching, fingers stiff, until he had ripped it into tiny pieces.

  Cerasi could not be used this way. He had to stop it. He had to take his grief and his love for her and fight to stop it. He had to talk to Nield. No one else could help him.

  Obi-Wan found him in the tunnels, in a room far away from the vault where they'd first met. It was a room they'd used for a short time as storage. Nield sat on a bench, his head down.

  "Nield?" Obi-Wan entered the room hesitantly. "I've been searching for you."

  Nield didn't look up. But neither did he ask Obi-Wan to leave.

  "Our hearts are broken," Obi-Wan said. "I know that. I miss her. But if she could see what is happening, she would be furious. Do you know what I mean?"

  Nield didn't answer.

  "They're mobilizing for war and using Cerasi as a reason," Obi-Wan said. "We can't let that happen. It would violate everything she stood for. We couldn't protect Cerasi when she was alive. But we can protect her memory."

  Nield's head still hung down. Was his grief so huge that he couldn't hear Obi-Wan? Or had he reached him?

  Then Nield looked up. Obi-Wan took a step backward. Instead of the grief he expected to see, Nield's face was twisted with rage.

  "How dare you come here," Nield said, his voice throbbing with fury. "How dare you say you couldn't protect her? Why not, Obi-Wan?" Nield stood. In the small space, his head nearly touched the ceiling. His anger filled the chamber.

  "I tried to get to her," Obi-Wan began. "I--"

  "She shouldn't have been there at all!" Nield shouted. "You should have been watching her, protecting her, not rushing into situations trying to save strangers like a ... Jedi!"

  Spitting out the last word, Nield took a menacing step toward Obi-Wan. His dark eyes burned. Obi-Wan could see the unshed tears in them. Tears of grief and rage.

  "Jedi, always with their minds on higher things," Nield continued bitterly. "Always better than those they protect, unable to connect with living beings, with flesh and blood and hearts . .."

  "No!" Obi-Wan cried. "That's not what Jedi are about! That's exactly opposite of who we are!"

  "We!" Nield cried. "You see? You are a Jedi! You have no loyalty to us. You're a stranger. You influenced Cerasi, you made her oppose me--"

  "No, Nield." Obi-Wan struggled to keep his voice calm and steady. "You know that's not true. No one could ever influence Cerasi or tell her what to do. She only wanted peace. That's why I'm here."

  Nield's hands curled into fists. "Peace?" he hissed. "What is that? What is peace next to loss? Cerasi was killed by the Elders and they must suffer. I won't rest until every filthy Elder is dead. I will avenge her or die!"

  Obi-Wan was taken aback. Nield sounded like a hologram in the Halls that he detested.

  "What are you doing here, Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Nield asked, disgust choking his voice. "You aren't part of the Young. You never were. You're not Melida. You're not Daan. You're nobody, you're nowhere, and you are nothing to me." The anger left Nield's voice, and weariness seemed to pull him down on the bench. "Now get out of my sight ... and get off my planet."

  Obi-Wan backed out of the chamber. He walked through the tunnels until he saw a square of gray light overhead. He pulled himself up through a grate he had never been through before. He found himself on an unfamiliar street. He was lost. He took a step in one direction, then another. His brain was reeling, and he couldn't gather his thoughts. They were clouded by Nield's words.

  Where should he go? Every cord that connected him to his life had snapped. Everyone he cared about was gone. Nield was right. Without the Jedi, without the Young, he had nobody. He was nobody. When nothing was left, where was there to turn? The gray sky seemed to press down on him, grinding him into the pavement. He wanted to fall down and never rise again.

  But as he reached the bottom of his despair, he heard a voice in his head.

  Always here, you may come, when lost you are...

  Qui-Gon alerted security to be on the lookout for Bruck. They could comb the grounds more efficiently tha
n he could. Then he raised the container from the water himself and dragged it back to shore. At least they could return the stolen property.

  He retrieved Obi-Wan's lightsaber from the dry compartment. He hit the activator, and it shot to life immediately, glowing ice-blue in the darkness. It hadn't been damaged, he saw with relief. He deactivated it and hooked it into his belt next to his own.

  Tahl led the silenced TooJay back to her quarters. She would coordinate the search efforts from there. Qui-Gon went straight to Bruck's chamber.

  The boy wasn't there, of course. Security had already looked for him. It was clear that the boy had decided not to take chances. He was gone for good.

  Qui-Gon looked around Bruck's room. If there was a clue here to why a promising boy would do such things, he couldn't see it. His clothes were neatly folded, his desk neat. What had been in the boy's heart? Qui-Gon touched the lightsaber on his belt. What was in any boy's heart? And why did Yoda think that Qui-Gon could see into them?

  He had let the Temple down. Bruck's anger had been there. He hadn't seen it. Just as he hadn't seen the anger of his first Padawan, Xanatos. Or the unrest of Obi-Wan. Wearily, Qui-Gon gazed out the window. The sun was rising. It was time to tell Yoda. One of their own had betrayed them.

  His comlink flashed red - Yoda was calling him. He was most likely anxious for the report.

  Qui-Gon took the turbolift to the conference room where he knew Yoda would be waiting. Yoda was alone in the room when he walked in.

  "So you've heard," he said.

  "Bruck our culprit is," Yoda said. "Troubling and sad, yes. Called you here for something else, I have. A message for you."

  Startled, Qui-Gon looked at Yoda, but the Master gave no clues. He activated a hologram instead.

  The image of Obi-Wan suddenly appeared in the room.

  Angrily, Qui-Gon turned away and started for the door.

  "I don't have time--"

  Obi-Wan's voice was soft. "Cerasi is dead."

  The words hit Qui-Gon hard. He stopped and turned. Now he could see that his former Padawan's face was etched with misery.