Jedi Quest 4: The Master of Disguise (звёздные войны)

by Jude Watson

  You can look them up, research, find out what you need. Some are diffuse.

  They are spread out so far they almost disappear." She hummed under her breath. "This Omega was like that. Enormously wealthy, but no particular home. Many companies within companies within companies… many acquaintances, no friends. His business interests are galaxy-wide." She sent the holofile spinning through the air toward Obi-Wan. "You have a file full of information that tells you nothing."

  Just like his physical appearance, Obi-Wan thought, stopping the file with a raised hand. The man hid behind a blank wall he created himself.

  He looked through the file again. Omega specialized in ferreting out rare minerals and buying the whole source, then raising the price. He was enormously wealthy yet kept his wealth diversified and hidden in any number of secret accounts. There was no information that either Obi-Wan or Jocasta Nu had been able to find on his beginnings. They did not know his home planet. He just suddenly appeared, a wealthy man.

  Obi-Wan looked through the list of his known homes. There were fifteen of them spread over the galaxy. Tracking him down would be extremely difficult and time-consuming.

  He closed the file and sent it back to Jocasta Nu. "I doubt you'll find anything, but if you could do a new search.."

  She nodded. "I'll get back to you."

  Just then Yoda appeared in the doorway. "Find you here, I am not surprised. It is still Omega you seek?"

  Obi-Wan walked out to join him in the hallway. "It seems he is almost impossible to find."

  "Impossible, nothing is. Difficult, many things are. To you the question must be, why search?"

  "I have a feeling," Obi-Wan said. "Maybe it is up to me to prevent something before it happens. I don't want to wait for disaster to overtake me."

  Yoda nodded, his gray-blue eyes revealing nothing. "But an immediate threat Omega is not."

  "The immediate threat is not always apparent."

  "Argue with you I will not," Yoda said. "Your decision, this is. But think I do that you need a better reason to spend time on this. Heard I have that your Padawan needs you. Events on Haariden marked him, they have."

  "Yes," Obi-Wan said. "He feels responsible for Darra's injury. She'll be fine, but she lost her lightsaber. He feels terrible about that. And I was not happy with his actions during the battle."

  "Lightsaber skills, important they are," Yoda said. "How to use as well as how not to use. When to move as well as when not to move. Restraint, your young Padawan needs, as well as direction."

  "I've spoken to him," Obi-Wan said. "He listens. Yet I've come to see that Anakin really learns by doing. With every mission, he grows."

  "Yet sometimes one Knight is not enough to teach a Padawan," Yoda said. He paused. Obi-Wan knew he had more to say. They moved down the hall, Yoda's gimer stick tapping as he walked.

  Yoda spoke as they reached the lift tube. "Hear I have that Soara Antana will remain at the Temple until Darra is better."

  "Yes, she will not leave her."

  "Not much she has to do, I think," Yoda said. "Distraction, she needs.

  "The lift tube opened and he stepped in. He nodded at Obi-Wan as the doors slid closed.

  Obi-Wan smiled. He saw what Yoda was suggesting. "I think I know a way to keep her busy," he said to the closed doors.

  Chapter Seven

  Anakin sat in the map room. He had activated dozens of holographic worlds at once. They swirled around him in their varied systems while dozens of voices told him facts about their climate, geography, species, and culture. The voices blended into an indistinguishable babble.

  It was an exercise he had invented to calm his mind. He drew the Force around him to help him concentrate. Then he tried to find the thread of one voice and follow it. As soon as he had, he would add another. He thought of the voices as layers in his mind, and he tried to keep track of what each voice was telling him, all at the same time. It was difficult and took tremendous concentration. But all the voices together filled up the space in his head and drowned out his own voice, his own feelings. So he would not have to think, only concentrate.

  Concentration is different from thinking, his Master had told him.

  When you are concentrating hard enough, you shouldn't be thinking at all.

  It was here in the map room that he had first understood what Obi-Wan had meant.

  He was concentrating so intently on separating the voices that he didn't hear Obi-Wan come in. His Master could move without making the smallest sound, but Anakin wanted to reach the point where he always knew when Obi-Wan entered the room. He wasn't there yet.

  Obi-Wan sat down beside him and waited for him to turn.

  "A mission?" Anakin asked hopefully.

  "No, we are at the Temple for a while," Obi-Wan said. "I haven't told you something I discovered on Haariden, something I told the Council about.

  That patrol was paid to attack us by Granta Omega."

  Anakin felt the nerves inside his body tighten. He realized he had been waiting for this. He had wanted to pursue Omega after their experience on Ragoon-6.

  "Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "You had enough to think about."

  Anakin knew that his Master meant his concern for Darra. He had haunted the med clinic until he knew she would fully recover.

  "Are we going after him?" Anakin asked.

  "Jocasta Nu is helping me do some research," Obi-Wan said. Anakin realized this wasn't quite an answer. "In the meantime," Obi-Wan continued, "I have something for you to do."

  "I am ready, Master."

  "I have arranged a private lightsaber tutorial for you with Soara Antana."

  Anakin felt his heart fall. Shame filled him. "Because of what happened on Haariden."

  "Yes," Obi-Wan said. "There is no blame, Padawan. Yet there are things you need to learn. Things that I have not been able to teach you."

  "There is nothing you can't teach me, Master," Anakin argued. But the real reason for Anakin's disquiet was a secret fear that Obi-Wan planned to leave him behind while he went after Granta Omega. Obi-Wan would do the real work while he remained behind like a schoolboy, taking lessons.

  "This is not your decision, Padawan." Obi-Wan's tone was sharp. "This is a great honor for you. Soara rarely takes individual students. She would not agree if she didn't think you had great potential."

  Anakin fought with his feelings. He did not want to confess to his Master that he was afraid Obi-Wan would leave him. "Yes, Master."

  The stern lines of Obi-Wan's face relaxed into a smile at Anakin's obedient tone. "You might have fun."

  Anakin looked at him with such disbelief that Obi-Wan's smile turned into a laugh.

  Later that afternoon, Anakin tucked the training lightsaber into his belt with distaste. He felt like a young student again. He found himself tugging at his tunic to straighten it before walking into the practice area to meet Soara. Quickly he rumpled it again. He wasn't a student any longer.

  He was a Padawan Learner.

  Soara didn't notice his rumpled tunic or his lack of enthusiasm. She nodded shortly at him. "Let's go."

  "Go?" Anakin was puzzled. Lightsaber training had always taken place in the practice room.

  She lifted a corner of her mouth in a small smile. "Do you expect there to be a practice room to fight in on missions?"

  Anakin grinned. "I guess not." Maybe he would enjoy this after all.

  Soara took him to the landing platform, where he jumped into an airspeeder next to her. Her piloting was as aggressive and graceful as her battle form. She took him to a part of Coruscant he'd never visited, a hundred levels or so below the Temple. Here, an entire quarter of the city was being knocked down in order to build new construction. Half-demolished buildings were surrounded by blocks of duracrete, bundles of durasteel cables, and towers of polished stone blocks.

  Soara parked the speeder and slid out. Anakin jumped out after her and looked around. The work had stopped for the day. The buildings t
hrew deep jagged shadows over the walkways. There had once been an attempt to keep the walkways clean of debris, but the sweeping had been half completed and footing was treacherous. He waited to see what Soara would do.

  Soara did nothing. She picked her way over to a building and looked up at the frame being erected. "Housing," she said. "Coruscant always needs more housing. Amazing that people keep immigrating here. Do you know that building is the biggest industry on Coruscant?"

  Was he here for an economics lesson? "I didn't know."

  He tilted his head back to follow her gaze, following the durasteel frame of the building. Suddenly a shadow off to his left moved, and a figure leaped through the air toward him. Anakin saw a blaze of orange. A lightsaber!

  He just had time to jump back and fumble for his training lightsaber as he felt the sting of the blow against his forearm.

  "Got ya," Tru Veld said, grinning. His friend had come at him from the high steel doorway behind him. He bounced back on his flexible legs and saluted Anakin with a lightsaber flourish. He, too, was using a training lightsaber — able to defend, but not to harm.

  Confused, Anakin glanced at Soara, his lightsaber in his hand.

  "Do you expect your attacker to announce himself?" she asked.

  Tru came toward him again. Anakin somersaulted backward and then twisted to come at Tru from the left. He sliced the hem of Tru's tunic.

  "Missed me," Tru said, dancing backward. His silver eyes gleamed. He was having fun.

  Anakin reversed. His lightsaber hit Tru's. Smoke rose, and Anakin almost stumbled when Tru ducked and rushed at him, surprising him.

  Tru might be having fun, but he was serious.

  Anakin had barely missed being stung by Tru's blow. He emptied his mind of his surprise at Tru's appearance. He had to concentrate in order to gather in what he thought of as his battle mind. His attention expanded to include everything around him. And yet his focus was now entirely on Tru.

  Everything he knew about Tru clicked in and became information he could use.

  Tru was a Teevan, and thus his limbs were more flexible than Anakin's.

  Tru never played a game he wasn't certain he would win.

  Tru's left hand was stronger than his right.

  Tru liked to choose the rhythm of the battle.

  Anakin moved to confuse and unsettle his friend. He fought aggressively, then stepped back to lure Tru forward. He landed a blow on Tru's arm.

  Normally, a Jedi Master would announce points when blows were struck.

  The winning blow would be to the neck. Soara did not. He knew she was watching, but he tried not to think about it. Still, he felt her circling, watching them from every angle.

  Anakin used the ground. While he moved, he noticed everything — the cables, the blocks of stone, the tiniest pebble on the ground, the hydrospanner abandoned on the top of a block of duracrete. Someone's lunch bucket left on a grassy area by the walkway. He drove Tru steadily backward. Tru suddenly leaped high above and grabbed a pole with only his legs. On his backward swing, he struck out at Anakin.

  It was a surprising move, and Anakin hadn't expected it. His eyes gleamed as he leaped to avoid Tru. Tru swung around the pole twice while Anakin dodged, wedged between a half-built wall and a deep pit. He slashed at Tru, who suddenly leaped off the pole and landed behind Anakin.

  Perfect. Anakin whirled and drove Tru back onto the grass. Tru's foot hit the lunch bucket and he stumbled. His lightsaber was in his left hand from his twirl around the pole, and Anakin saw it wobble.

  It was time for Anakin to move in with the killing blow, the sting of the training lightsaber. All he had to do was step forward and lightly touch Tru's neck.

  But he hated to win the battle based on a moment of awkwardness on Tru's part, even if he himself had engineered it. He would embarrass his friend in front of Soara Antana. Instead, he hesitated a fraction of a second, long enough for Tru to regain some sense of balance. Then they fought on.

  The moon was rising and they were both drenched in sweat when Soara called a halt. "Let's call it a draw." Anakin slipped the lightsaber into his belt, satisfied. He knew he had fought well. Tru brought out the best in him.

  "You can go, Tru," Soara said. "Thank you."

  Tru grinned at Anakin. "Good fight. See you back at the Temple."

  Soara did not move. Anakin stood, breathing heavily, waiting for her critique. He knew a few places where he could have fought better. She would not say anything that would surprise him.

  "I called it a draw, but you lost," Soara said. "And you lost in the worst sort of way."

  Anakin looked at her with new attention, surprised. "What?"

  "If you want to become great, you must fight without emotion," Soara said. "You obviously have not learned this. You must fight without anger, without fear, without rage. Without ego."

  "Without ego? But — "

  "No buts. Listen. On Haariden, you made the same mistake. Because you know Darra, you rushed in to protect her. Today you protected Tru. You think you are doing this as a mark of friendship. But you're really doing it to boost your own ego."

  "My own ego?" Anakin was astonished.

  Soara crossed her arms. "You know, Anakin, things will go a lot faster if you don't repeat everything I say. Yes, your own ego. You think you're a better fighter than your friends. You think you're faster. You think you need to go easy on them. Let me tell you something. You're not better. As a matter of fact, you're a good deal worse."

  The words stung. Anakin felt his face grow hot. The evening wind was cool and drying his sweat.

  Soara whirled and kicked backward at his hand. He did not even feel the blow, but his lightsaber was suddenly shooting out of his hand and clattering to the stone pavement.

  "And another thing," she said. "Never let down your guard."

  Anakin picked up the hilt of the lightsaber and stuck it in his belt.

  He vowed to himself that Soara Antana would not take him by surprise again.

  He would use what she gave him. He would absorb her hard words and her lessons. By the end of this tutorial, he would change her opinion about him. He would be the best Padawan she'd ever taught.

  He slipped into the med clinic. The light tubes were powered down to a soft glow. He walked as quietly as he could to the side of Darra's med couch. She looked small and helpless, still hooked up to monitoring machines. Her eyes were closed.

  Her mouth curved into a smile. "Hello, Anakin," she said without opening her eyes.

  "I came to say good night. Are you feeling better?" "Yes. Much." She opened her eyes and glanced at him. "Better than you look, anyway. What have you been doing?"

  "A private tutorial with your Master."

  She gave a sympathetic groan. "Ooh. Sorry."

  He crouched down so that they were at eye level. "She's very tough."

  "The toughest."

  "But I can learn."

  "If you listen. She'll push you hard, and then she'll tell you something strange, something you don't want to understand. That's what she wants. The more tired you are, the emptier you are. That's when she really starts to work."

  "Lucky me," Anakin said with a grimace. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened on Haariden. She told me it was my ego. She was right."

  "It's okay," Darra said. "Now I have something to impress the younger kids with. I was wounded in battle."

  "I'm here to make you a promise," Anakin said.

  "Don't," Darra said, rising on her elbows. "I know what you're going to say, and you can't promise such a thing. Besides, I can get my lightsaber back myself."

  "But I'm the reason you lost it."

  "I'm the reason I lost it," Darra said firmly. "I'm the one who dropped it. Did you ever think it was your ego that wants to get it back?"

  Suddenly she slumped against the pillow. "Do me a favor. Don't argue with me. I'm too tired."

  Anakin saw the exhaustion in her face she had tried to hide. "Is there anything I can do for you?
Would you like some juice, or some food, or some music?" Darra's eyelids fluttered closed. "Just one thing," she said. "Stay with me until I fall asleep. It's lonely here."

  "I will." Anakin shifted his weight so that he was sitting on the floor. He leaned against the sleep couch next to her head. He knew she could feel the pressure of his body, and that would make her feel safe. He sat there until her breathing slowed and he knew she was asleep.

  "I promise you, Darra," he whispered. "I will return your lightsaber to you. It is not my ego. It is my promise."