Jedi Apprentice 12: The Evil Experiment (звёздные войны)

by Джуд Уотсон

  She shook her head. "Impossible."

  "If you want me to use the Force, why do you weaken me?" Qui-Gon asked. "When the body weakens, its ability to connect to the Force does as well."

  "I know that," Zan Arbor snapped. She prowled around the lab restlessly. "I discovered that right away. But I need to analyze your blood. I believe there is a way to harness the Force in it. But I can't find it! If I can discover more properties of the Force and how it's used, I can begin to break down exactly what it is."

  Qui-Gon did not want to anger her, only distract her. He wanted her to forget how long he was outside the chamber.

  "What about your other research?" he asked. "Is investigating the Force worth giving all that up? You saved beings throughout the galaxy. You are renowned."

  "I am tired of renown," Jenna Zan Arbor said, as sulky as a child.

  "What did I get for it?"

  "Respect," Qui-Gon answered. "And the knowledge that you have done good for your fellow beings."

  "I thought that mattered once," Zan Arbor said bitterly. "It does not. I still had to fight in the Senate for research money. I still had to convince half-brained leaders to run trials of my vaccines. I still had to spend endless hours trying to fund my projects. I should have been working!

  I am too valuable to have to waste my time."

  "That is true," Qui-Gon said. "I did not realize your difficulty."

  Jenna Zan Arbor was consumed with her own brilliance, he saw. Such beings liked to talk about themselves. If he was careful not to annoy her, he would be able to stay out of the chamber and learn more about her. His only hope for escape lay in understanding his captor.

  "No one does," Zan Arbor said, pacing back and forth. "When famine struck Rend 5 and I bioengineered a new food to feed the entire planet, did I get a reward? When the Tendor Virus struck the entire Caldoni system and my vaccine cured millions, what did I receive in return? Not enough. I learned my lesson."

  "What did you learn?" Qui-Gon noticed that Nil was looking at Zan Arbor worshipfully. His attention had drifted from guarding Qui-Gon.

  "That I must not depend on the galaxy to recognize my greatness," Zan Arbor said. "I must depend on myself to raise the funds I need. A famine here, a disease there — what does it matter? They will get sick, they will go hungry for a time. Then they will pay for a cure." "I don't understand,"

  Qui-Gon said.

  Zan Arbor did not answer him directly. "There is morality in the galaxy, but I have not seen it," she mused. "I have seen greed and violence and laziness. If you look at it that way, I do them a favor. I thin out populations and the strong survive."

  Qui-Gon saw behind the veil of her words to a truth that shocked him.

  He struggled to conceal his disgust. His voice was calm and even when he asked the next question. "So you introduce a virus into a population so that you can then cure it?"

  But Zan Arbor must have picked up something in his tone. "I forgot for a moment about the Jedi morality. You think this is wrong."

  "I am trying to understand your reasoning," Qui-Gon said. "You are a brilliant scientist. It's hard to follow the turns of your thoughts."

  The answer seemed to please her. "Of course I approached the problem scientifically. I used models. I calculated how many deaths it would take before a population panicked. Then I introduced the virus in a certain amount and waited for it to replicate. When a certain amount of people were killed, the leader would contact me. Then I would pretend to work on the antidote I already had prepared. When they were desperate and ready to open their treasuries to me, I dispensed it. So you see there were no unnecessary deaths."

  Zan Arbor's eyes were shining with the pride of accomplishment. Qui- Gon saw that everything she said made absolute sense to her. He realized that she was crazy.

  Did that make his situation easier, or more complicated?

  "You are greatness!" Nil burst out.

  Zan Arbor did not seem to register his praise. "I had to do this, you see," she said to Qui-Gon. "The mystery at the heart of the Force is my greatest research problem. I had to fund that research. If I get to the heart of the Force, I get to the heart of power. I get to the heart of existence itself."

  "And when you do that, what next?" Qui-Gon asked.

  "I will have all the power I need at last," she said. "Then friends I have left behind will understand that if sacrifices were made… I… made them for a good reason."

  Qui-Gon noticed the slight hesitancy. "Do you mean Uta S'orn?"

  "She is my friend. She has stood by me. Supported my work in the Senate. I was grateful, of course." Jenna Zan Arbor looked uncertain for the first time. "But one cannot let gratitude interfere with science."

  "So when you discovered that her son was Force-sensitive, you saw a way to further your research," Qui-Gon guessed.

  "He said yes right away!" Jenna Zan Arbor cried. "He would do anything for money. He did not realize the commitment he had to make. He was a scientific subject. Surely he should have known there were risks involved…"

  "But he did not expect to die," Qui-Gon said.

  "I did not expect it either," she said quickly. "But what kind of life did he lose? A life of despair. Uta grieved for her son every minute of her life while he was alive. It is no different now."

  "So you believe she will understand," Qui-Gon said.

  Behind Zan Arbor's coolness, he sensed unrest. "She must. It is logical."

  "It will be an interesting conversation, I'm sure," Qui-Gon said neutrally.

  "It is time for you to use the Force," she said suddenly, as if she regretted her words. "And this time, I want to see something more than your moving an object a few inches."

  Qui-Gon summoned the Force. He closed his eyes and felt it around him, felt it connect him to the living beings here and the world outside — wherever he was. He gathered it inside his body to help it heal…

  And he felt an answering call.

  Someone else was here. Obi-Wan? Qui-Gon concentrated, drawing the Force around him.

  No, not Obi-Wan. Someone else. She was holding someone else here, someone who was Force-sensitive. And whoever it was, he or she was very weak.

  He heard beeping and opened his eyes. Zan Arbor sat at the console, leaning forward to study a monitor.

  "Excellent," she breathed.

  He let the Force slip away. She turned and scowled.

  "I am tired," he said.

  "Then you won't mind returning to your chamber to rest," she taunted.

  Yes, he minded. But not as much as he had before. Someone else was here. Next time she let him out, he would be ready to fight.

  Chapter 10

  Before Obi-Wan could speak or move, Astri stepped forward. "Why do you want his light-saber?" she asked the boy.

  He thrust out his chin. "What difference does it make?"

  "What if you want it so you can use it against us?" Astri challenged.

  "Why should we hand it over then?"

  "I don't want to kill you!" the boy protested.

  Astri studied him. "But you do want to find food for your family and your tribe. And you think if you had this weapon you could defeat the tribe on the other side of the mountain."

  The boy stared greedily at the lightsaber. "I have seen what it can do."

  "There are two problems with your plan," Astri said calmly. "The first is that you have to train for years in order to use a lightsaber.

  Isn't that right, Obi-Wan?"

  He nodded. "Even then, you have more to learn."

  "So you wouldn't get anywhere," Astri concluded. "Except maybe you'd cut off your own foot. The second thing wrong with your plan is that it won't solve your problem. Maybe if you fought this tribe and won — which is highly unlikely, by the way — you'd get enough food for a week, or a month.

  But you'd still be starving when the food ran out. You'd have to fight again. And this time the other tribe would be prepared to meet the attack."

  The boy stared
at her sullenly. "So what? I would still have the lightsaber. I would fight them."

  "Still, we aren't about to hand over such a powerful weapon so easily," Astri said. "We'll make you a deal."

  Obi-Wan shot her a look. We? He hadn't said a word.

  Astri ignored him. "If you tell us what you know, I'll cook you and your family a delicious meal. I'll show you where to find food and how to prepare it so you won't ever have to go hungry.

  The boy laughed. "You'll show me how to be a cook?"

  "I'll show you how to feed your tribe," Astri corrected. "Not for a week, or a month, but always. And if I can't do it, you get my friend's lightsaber."

  Obi-Wan shot Astri a look. He hadn't agreed to this. She put a finger to her lips.

  The boy looked out over the vast landscape of sand. Not a living, growing thing could be seen. Slowly, he smiled.

  "It's a deal."

  "Okay," Astri agreed. "Run and get a pack to put food in and we'll begin."

  The boy's name was Bhu Cranna. He followed behind them as Astri and Obi-Wan trudged through the sand.

  "I hope you know what you're doing," Obi-Wan murmured.

  "You stick to lightsabers. I'll stick to food." Astri moved to the shadow of the canyon wall. Where sand met rock, she dug down into the crack. She came up with a small purple mold.

  "Looks delicious," Obi-Wan said doubtfully.

  Grinning, she handed it to Bhu. "You'll see."

  For the next hour, Obi-Wan and Bhu trailed behind Astri, following her instructions as they scraped mold off the bottom of rocks and dug deep underneath the sand to find roots. Astri cut off strips of flesh from a spiny plant and then captured the juice that flowed from its heart. They crawled on their hands and knees through a cave to find mushrooms growing in the cracks of rocks.

  Obi-Wan fretted about the delay, but something told him that information about Reesa On was crucial to finding Qui-Gon. He only hoped that Astri's plan would work.

  "When I took over the cooking at the cafc, I had a plan," Astri explained as she pulled the spines out from the fleshy plant she'd sliced into pieces. "Every week I would feature dishes from one world in the galaxy. Luckily, Sorrus was one of those worlds. I chose it because it's so large and so many Sorrusians travel through the galaxy."

  "If this is their own food, why doesn't the tribe know how to find this?" Obi-Wan asked, indicating the plants and mushrooms they had gathered.

  "Because we were always able to cultivate crops," Bhu volunteered.

  "It's only recently that we've run completely out of water."

  Astri nodded. "In the Tira desert on the other side of Sorrus, they never had a water source, so they live off the desert. I figured that the same kinds of plants must grow here, too. And they do." She held up a gnarled root. "This is called turu root. Tastes pretty awful raw. But if you cook it right, it can be delicious."

  Obi-Wan looked doubtfully at the plant. "I can't believe Didi's and Qui-Gon's lives hang on a root. Can you really make all this taste good?"

  "Just watch me."

  Astri pounded roots into paste. She spread mushrooms out in the sun to dry. She ground little bits of leaves and roots and combined them into spices. Then she began to roast this and stir that and assemble the various items into a meal.

  When the meal was ready, Astri served it to the boy and his family.

  Bhu turned out to be the son of the tribe leader, Goq Cranna. He was the first to taste the meal, trying each food one at a Lime and chewing without expression. The boy and his mother waited, looking at him expectantly. Obi- Wan found that he was holding his breath.

  "It's good." Pleased, the father turned to Astri. "Where did you find these things?"

  "I can show you," Bhu said.

  "And I can tell you about more," Astri added. "But now you must tell us about Reesa On."

  The leader stood. "Her name is Ona Nobis. Bhu will show us where to go."

  Obi-Wan and Astri followed Bhu and Goq Cranna across the dunes. As they walked, Astri said softly to Obi-Wan, "Now, what was that you said about my not being able to cook us out of trouble?"

  "I stand corrected."

  "We do not speak of Ona Nobis," Goq explained as they caught up to him. He spoke in short bursts, like the rest of the tribe. "Her name is forbidden. For money, she betrayed us. A shameful thing. The government agent spoke to us of the wonders of the dam. We were skeptical. Yet she urged us to listen. She persuaded us. Later we discovered that she and this agent had conspired together. They knew the dam would turn our land into this arid place. The agent owned land across the mountain. He wanted fertile lands. So he received the water.

  We received the sand."

  "What happened to Ona Nobis?" Obi-Wan asked.

  "She left before we realized our mistake. We know how she makes her living. Another shame."

  "Where are you taking us?" Astri asked.

  "My boy found this place," Goq said. "She kept a hideout. Cleverly hidden."

  They came to another, smaller canyon. Bhu hesitated when he came to an outcropping of a rock wall.

  "When we turn this corner, the wind will be very strong," he warned.

  He raised his hood and directed them to do the same.

  "It is the way the land is formed," Goq said. "It creates a downdraft. This is a place where no one goes."

  They turned the corner. Obi-Wan was nearly blown off his feet. Astri staggered, and he reached out a hand to steady her. He pulled her forward.

  The wind here was terrible. It drove the sand against their skin and in their eyes. They covered most of their faces with their cloaks.

  "This way!" Goq shouted. "Stay close!"

  Obi-Wan followed on Goq's heels. The closer they got to the far canyon wall, the worse the sandstorm became. He could no longer see Bhu, who was only a few meters ahead.

  When he saw Goq drop to his knees he did the same. He motioned to Astri to go ahead of him so he could be sure she would not get lost.

  Obi-Wan crawled, following the others. Ahead he saw Astri disappear into a small opening in the rock face. He squeezed himself through.

  Immediately, the wind stopped. Obi-Wan wiped his face and tried to shake the sand out of his hair and tunic folds. Bhu lit a glow rod.

  "Follow me," he whispered. "In a few meters, we will be able to stand."

  Obi-Wan crawled after Astri. She passed through another opening, and he followed.

  Immediately the walls widened. He got a sense of air and space around him. He stood cautiously.

  Bhu shined the glow rod. Obi-Wan saw a smooth floor and walls, bedding rolled up in a corner, and something covered with a tarp. He quickly reached for his own glow rod.

  He lifted the tarp and held his glow rod high to illuminate the boxes.

  "Med supplies. Survival rations."

  "We took a vote and decided to leave the survival rations intact,"

  Goq told them. "We did not want her to know that we found this place." He gave a short smile. "We were getting close to raiding the food until you came along. Now we do not need to."

  "So she doesn't know you've found this place?" Obi-Wan asked.

  Bhu shook his head. "We have been very careful. I think she was here recently. One of the survival ration packs is gone."

  "Now we will leave you here," Goq said. "We will wait for you in the next canyon. If you follow the canyon wall, you will find us."

  Obi-Wan thanked them, and Goq and Bhu left.

  "Here's a datapad, Obi-Wan," Astri called excitedly.

  Obi-Wan hurried over. He quickly accessed the file system. To his relief, the files were not coded.

  "These are case files," he said, scrolling through. "Clients. Jobs she took on."

  "Any hint of where she could be now?" Astri asked.

  "Hold on. Let me access the latest file." Obi-Wan clicked a few keys.

  He read carefully through the information. "This is it," he said excitedly.

  Astri crouched down next to him. "What i
s it?"

  "It's the case she's working on now," Obi-Wan said. "I guess her work for Jenna Zan Arbor is over." He pointed at the screen. "She's shadowing the governor of Cinnatar. That's in this system. It's less than a day's travel from here."

  "The governor must be her next target," Astri agreed.

  "I'll contact the Temple for a Jedi team." Obi-Wan reached for his comlink, but its indicator light was already activated. Tahl was looking for him.