Kenobi: Star Wars

by John Jackson Miller

  Before Orrin could think of a response, Mosep spoke again. “I was told you were taking an army—such as it is—back into the hills. Now, why would you do such a thing when a bill is due today?”

  Veeka looked at her father, concerned.

  “It’s an old story,” the Nimbanel accountant continued, from the deck of the skiff. “People refuse their obligations and try to run. Some take up arms and try to fight.” He snapped his hairy fingers, and Jorrk took up station at the skiff’s deck gun. “The afternoon deadline is rescinded, Orrin. You will pay us now.”

  “What’s this about?” Orrin yelled nervously. “Did the Tusken-lover bring you here?” Elated to have hit on another tactic, he brightened as he looked around. “I guess Kenobi works with scum, too!”

  “I don’t know who you mean,” Mosep said, growing impatient. Behind the skiff, another vehicle was arriving from the north. “Your neighbor called me.”

  My neighbor? Orrin swallowed, his throat dry. He had rivals among the farmers, here. Did one of them know something? He looked around in shock and surprise, anxious to make a good show of it. “Is one of you here trying to set me up—to embarrass me with this nonsense?”

  The landspeeder that had been racing up from behind now passed through the criminals’ line of vehicles. Settlers raised rifles against the hovercraft entering their midst—and then lowered them, as they recognized the driver.

  Navigating among the overturned landspeeders, Annileen brought the ruby JG-8 to a stop near one of the pathways leading up the rift. She stepped out near the Gaults and held a red comlink high. “I called them,” she said.

  Aboard the skiff, Mosep raised an identical communicator: the one Orrin had dropped in his lair. He smiled toothily. “Good to see you, Mistress Calwell.”

  Orrin gaped at Annileen. “Y-you?”

  “Yes.” Catching her breath, she turned to the vigilantes. “Ben’s innocent. I heard what Orrin said back at the Claim. Now you should hear the real story!”

  Mullen started menacingly toward Annileen. “Woman, you’d better not!”

  Annileen turned to see Veeka approaching from her other side. Veeka clutched at Annileen’s arm. Her eyes looked wild. “Think about that whelp of yours!” Veeka said.

  Orrin could only look at Annileen imploringly.

  Annileen pulled her arm free from Veeka’s grasp. Staring at Orrin, she spoke with an assurance he’d heard before—the tower of power he’d often described her as. “I’m not going to let you hurt someone whose only crime was to help me,” she said. “I do care about my family. But what you’ve done is wrong!”

  Ulbreck stepped forward, rifle in hand and clearly flustered. “I don’t know what in blazes is going on here!”

  “I think I do,” Waller said. He shook his head at Orrin. “We trusted you.” All around, settlers began to turn their weapons away from the skiff and its associated hovercraft and toward the Gaults.

  Orrin looked to his right. There was the USV-5, where it had come to rest after the stampede. He started toward it—

  —only to see his precious hovercraft explode in a blossom of metal and flame.

  Spun around by the shock wave, Orrin saw what had happened. On the skiff, Mosep gestured to the Klatooinian at the smoking deck gun. “Jorrk’s an oaf, but with a big enough gun, even he can’t miss,” the accountant said. “You people can’t have Gault until we’re finished. He owes us money!”

  Ulbreck shot a hateful look at the Nimbanel. “You pirates don’t have any say here! This is the range!”

  The old farmer’s companions raised their rifles. “Our justice comes first!” another settler said.

  Mosep glanced up at the suns and mopped sweat from his fuzzy face. “You really are a trying lot,” he said. “I told Orrin’s handler it was a mistake to offer credit to any of you.” He turned the loudhailer to address his thugs. “Try not to kill the human woman who just drove up,” Mosep said. “She brought us here. It wouldn’t be polite.” He tugged at his neck brace and looked back at the settlers. “I’m sorry, but if you insist on making this unpleasant—”

  A blaster rifle sounded, followed by a high-pitched crack to Mosep’s side. Startled, he twisted his torso to see what had happened. There was Jorrk, staring stupidly at what was left of his exploded and smoking deck gun. Another shot sounded—and the Klatooinian fell backward, dead. Mosep looked toward the settlers.

  “I killed me a room full of Tuskens,” Ulbreck shouted, rifle sight set on the skiff. “I ain’t gonna let you people push me around!”

  At the sound of the old man’s words, all the settlers reached the same conclusion. As one, they turned and fired at Jabba’s thugs. Return fire came in, sending others to dive for cover behind the upturned landspeeders. On the skiff, Mosep screamed and hid behind the nearest Gamorrean, only to be flattened when the green thug took a blaster shot between the eyes.

  Stuck in the open, Orrin grabbed at Annileen, pulling her from the crossfire. For a second she looked at him, speechless—until his hand tightened around her arm.

  “Kids! Let’s go!” Orrin yelled.

  Startled, Annileen tried to pull away. But now Mullen grabbed her other arm. With blaster shots from the thugs coming into the rift, Orrin shoved her toward the JG-8, still parked nearby.

  Annileen yelled, but in the din, only Waller and two other settlers, crouching in cover, heard.

  Waller turned. “Orrin, stop!”

  With his free hand, Orrin pulled his pistol and placed it at Annileen’s head. “We’re getting out of here,” he said, pushing her toward the landspeeder.

  Veeka threw an armload of weapons into the front of the vehicle and slid behind the controls. “We can’t get through all that,” she yelled, pointing back at the raging battle.

  Orrin had no intention of going that way. He pointed to the sloping corridor leading upward, the rocky path Ben had taken up into the formation. “There! Go!”

  Under fire from Mosep’s henchmen, Waller could only watch as Orrin’s daughter gunned the JG-8 up the impossible terrain. The hovercraft whined in protest, slamming against ground it had never been designed to navigate. Stray blasterfire struck nearby. A steering vane caught against an outcrop and snapped off. Then the landspeeder left the battle behind …

  A’Yark ran across the high camp, robes flying.

  “To the caves!” she yelled, herding elder and animal alike. Children and scaly canine massiffs squealed and ran, leaving chores and meals unfinished near the sacred well.

  The clearing was a somewhat level theater surrounded by more of the great towers of stone, half a kilometer up the formation. Most of the day it was in shadows, but now, at mid-suns, all was exposed. To east and west, crumbling blocks piled against the mountains. Normally, those offered shade and shelter; today, they were the hiding place of last resort. A’Yark shoved blaster rifles into the hands of a pair of nurses heading off to hide the children. She had no confidence they would know what to do with the weapons. She had waited too long to teach them.

  A mechanical noise came from the gap to the north: the downward passage that had been guarded by A’Yark and Ben. A landspeeder, she instantly realized. The ascent should have been impossible! Desperately, she looked to either side. Their few warriors were still down at their observation posts, watching the firefight. There was no way to call them. Time was up.

  She turned to see Ben running with a writhing pair of Tusken toddlers, carrying them to cover. Gaderffii in hand, she dashed toward him.

  Handing off the second child to a Tusken woman in hiding, Ben looked to a wide opening between the titanic stones to the south. “That way?” he asked.

  “Bad country,” A’Yark said. “It is too late. They are here. Quickly!”

  A’Yark and Ben slid over a collapsed pile of granite. Looking back over it, they saw the red l
andspeeder thumping over the rocky entrance in the north.

  “Orrin,” Ben said quietly. “He just won’t turn back.”

  A’Yark looked out. The Smiling One wasn’t alone. His offspring were in the front seats, and he held Annileen in the back, at gunpoint. Seconds later the landspeeder ground to an anguished halt on the rough terrain, eighty meters from their position. Orrin’s children stepped out and looked around warily.

  The warrior quietly set down her gaderffii. There was a rifle behind her. She reached for it, but Ben touched her gloved hand. “You can’t,” he said. “They have Annileen!”

  “She does not matter,” A’Yark whispered to Ben.

  “I decide that.”

  A’Yark shook her head. Madness. The humans were arming themselves. Would more follow soon?

  Held by Orrin, Annileen yelled out. “Ben—if you’re here, stay away!”

  A’Yark couldn’t hear what Annileen’s captors said to her after that, but it was clear they were doing nothing to keep her from yelling.

  “They mean to flush me out,” Ben whispered. He felt for the lightsaber beneath his cloak—and then withdrew his hand. “I can’t endanger Annileen.”

  “Then I attacks.” A’Yark clutched Ben’s wrist. “You, too. You have a duty.”

  “Don’t worry.” Ben looked behind, to where three children were cowering beneath an overhang. “I told you, I’ll protect your people if Orrin should—”

  “Not that.” A’Yark looked at Ben, searchingly. Can he not know what all Tuskens knew?

  She spoke quietly but quickly. “Orringault showed his true face. You kills him now, or he pursues you forever!” She pointed to the suns. “It is the way of skybrothers.”

  Ben stared. “This—this is another legend?”

  “It is the legend.”

  A’Yark watched Ben, who contemplated the story. After a moment, he shook his head. “I won’t leave this undone. But I won’t risk Annileen, either.” He looked to the left, to the forest of monoliths piled against the western mount. “Stay here,” he said, crawling away behind cover. “I have an idea!”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  ORRIN SAW NO COLOR in the place, apart from the landspeeder. Even its showroom shine was gone now, buried beneath dust. Veeka knelt beside it, examining an undercarriage battered from the raucous ride up the mountain.

  “Will she run?” Orrin asked, still holding Annileen.

  Veeka shook her head. “Stabilizers are gone,” she said. “You could fly it, if you don’t care where it goes.”

  “There’s nowhere to go,” Mullen said, looking warily around the abandoned camp. “How can anyone live in a place like this?”

  “I wouldn’t call it living.” Orrin sneered contemptuously. He shoved Annileen toward Mullen. “Hold her.”

  Orrin scanned the bases of the stony pylons around them. Reaching a decision, he checked his flak vest and blaster. “Veeka, forget the speeder and watch for snipers. I’m going to try something.”

  Cautiously, he walked across the rubble toward the center of the clearing. A sad well sat there, little more than a jagged hole surrounded by dented tin pots. He turned. “Kenobi!” he yelled.

  Nothing but echoes.

  And Annileen. “He’s too smart for you,” she said.

  Orrin looked back and scowled. “Shut up.”

  He turned his attention back to the perimeter. Something was moving out there, on both sides of the clearing. He could hear it. But as soon as he looked in either direction, the noise stopped, too.

  This is no good, Orrin thought. He looked back at the route they’d taken to get here. He wished he had some idea what was happening in the battle below. Could he and the kids bring down Kenobi’s body and blame the mess on him? Or did they need to keep moving, perhaps crossing enough of the Jundland to reach freedom? He stalked around the well, kicking a pail.

  From behind a boulder, a spiky reptilian half a meter long bounded into the clearing. A massiff! Dark-eyed and big-jawed, it charged straight for Orrin, who quickly drew a bead and shot. Struck by the orange energy, the massiff squawked and fell to the ground.

  Orrin looked back at Mullen and Veeka. “Thanks for the assist,” he said drily.

  “We’re watching for the big game,” Mullen said. He had Annileen’s arm in one hand and his blaster in the other, as his eyes continued to scan their surroundings.

  Orrin looked at the smoking creature and got an idea. Checking first that he was covered, he holstered his weapon and stepped toward the oozing massiff. He lifted the carcass. “Let’s do some home improvement,” he said loudly. Arriving back at the well, he dangled the dripping body theatrically over the hole. “Down you go—”

  “Don’t!” Ben’s voice called out from afar.

  Orrin lifted the massiff by its legs and looked around. “What,” he called out, “you don’t want me to poison your friends’ well?”

  “I was saying that to A’Yark,” Ben’s voice boomed. “The one you call Plug-eye. Because she’s going to shoot you, and you might accidentally drop the animal in anyway.”

  Somewhere, Orrin heard a weapon safety clicking on. He nodded. So the Tuskens were listening to Kenobi. “Glad to have gotten your attention,” he said.

  “Turn back now,” Ben repeated.

  This time, Orrin could tell that the voice was coming from the forest of pillars to the west. “I don’t feel like turning back,” he said, tossing the creature’s limp form down the hole. It bounced twice before hitting bottom with a thud. The well was dry.

  Orrin looked around. No one had fired at him. Ben wanted Annileen alive, and the Tuskens were following his lead. But Ben could change his mind at any moment, and Orrin wasn’t about to let him call the Sandies down on him.

  Pulling his weapon, Orrin made his way carefully to an opening in the western rocks. He shot a look back to Mullen and Veeka and mouthed a command. Wait for me.

  Orrin stepped amid the megaliths. It was as bizarre a natural formation as he’d seen on Tatooine—almost designed by nature to form a labyrinth. Mountain wind whistled between the towers, which rose high enough to blot out even the midday suns. He certainly didn’t lack for cover here. Getting a clean shot would be another matter.

  “I know you’re there, Kenobi!” he bellowed.

  “Turn back now.” Ben’s voice resounded through the rocks, closer than before.

  Orrin spun and fired. The shot hit the base of a tower, leaving a smoking pit in the surface.

  He kept walking. There was more movement. Footsteps, fast and light. Orrin fired again, down a long corridor.

  Nothing. Somewhere, he heard a Tusken child crying. Orrin growled impatiently. “Enough games, Kenobi!”

  “Agreed,” Ben said, his voice coming from a different side now. “So turn back.”

  “No!” Orrin felt his eyes burning. With his left hand, he pulled out his second blaster; he raised both weapons and fired. Again and again, turning in all directions. He could see movement and dust rising. He only needed one lucky shot. Just one!

  Blasterfire from the labyrinth resounded across the clearing.

  “Ben, watch out!” Annileen yelled again.

  Unrestrained by his father’s presence, Mullen shoved her forward. Annileen stumbled across the shattered stones and fell. Sprawled across the rocks, she turned around to see the young man aiming his blaster at her.

  “I’ve never been able to stand these snotty Calwells,” he said, one eyelid twitching as he stalked toward her.

  Rifle in hand, Veeka looked at her brother. “Dad didn’t say to kill her.”

  “Do we need her now?” Mullen asked.

  “I don’t know that we ever needed her,” his sister responded.

  “Do you care?”

  “Not really,
” Veeka said.

  Orrin continued to fire as he marched forward. He parted his hands and shot in either direction down the stony aisles—and then ahead and behind. He heard screaming from multiple quarters: the pathetic wails of frightened Tusken younglings. A bonus. All the frustration of the past months, all the worry of the last days fed through his body and the blasters in his hands.

  “Show yourself!”

  A cracking sound emanated from above. Reflexively, Orrin pointed his blasters upward. He’d been pounced on by Kenobi before—but the man wouldn’t get the drop on him again.

  Except the rock pillars were too tall for any man to scale, he saw. Then, suddenly, he heard another sickening snap, and a knife-shaped slab that had balanced for eons slid off the formation, plummeting toward him.

  Orrin leapt forward just before the massive chunk of stone stabbed the ground where he’d stood. Above, a fissure appeared in another stone tower. And another. Orrin cast his terrified eyes up and across the long rows of stone columns. This wasn’t a groundquake-by-bantha. This was something unreal—as if something invisible was pushing against the stones!

  He ran forward, blasters still clutched in his hands but his arms bent to shield his face from the rain of dust. Pebbles came down, and then chunks sheared off, striking all around.

  Orrin coughed as nuggets pelted his back. Another huge shard struck just ahead, and then another, behind.

  He screamed. “What’s going on?”

  Orrin looked up as a shadow fell over him.

  Thunder sounded in the rocks to the west. Mullen glared at his sister. “What in the blazes is going on over—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Annileen threw a fistful of sand in his face. Blinded, he staggered, and Annileen grabbed his ankle, pulled it toward her, and bit down hard.

  Hearing her brother’s howl, Veeka pointed her rifle at Annileen. She fired once, but her injured shoulder jerked her arm to the left and the shot missed. With animal instinct, Annileen dived for Mullen’s legs, knocking him backward. She tried to wrestle with him to keep Veeka from drawing another clear shot, but Mullen was too strong. Pinning her, he pointed his blaster in her face.